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56th Congress, 1 SENATE. [Document 

2d Session. t i No. 230. 



MEMORIAL ADDRESSES 



LIFE AND CHARACTER 



Cushman Kellogg Davis 



(Late a Senator from Minnesota), 



DELIVERED IN THE 



SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 



FIFTY-SIXTH CONGRESS, 
Second Session. 



WASHINGTON: 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OF] [I I . 

I90I. 



JUL ao 1901 
D.ofD. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Page. 

Proceedings in the Senate 5 

Prayer by the Chaplain 7 

Address of — 

Mr. Nelson, of Minnesota 9 

Mr. Hoar, of Massachusetts i 7 

Mr. Morgan, of Alabama 25 

Mr. Clark, of Wyoming 34 

Mr. Lodge, of Massachusetts 3S 

Mr. Daniel, of Virginia 4S 

Mr. Spooner, of Wisconsin 55 

Mr. Pettigrew, of South Dakota 63 

Mr. McCumber, of North Dakota 66 

Mr. Foster, of Washington 69 

Mr. Towxe, of Minnesota 72 

Proceedings in the House S3 

Address of — 

Mr. Fletcher, of Minnesota : S6 

Mr. Jenkins, of Wisconsin 92 

Mr. Tawnev, of Minnesota 95 

Mr. Underwood, of Alabama 102 

Mr. McCLEARV, of Minnesota 105 

Mr. Clark, of Missouri 1 14 

Mr. Parker, of New Jersey 116 

Mr. Heatwole, of Minnesota 1 iS 

Mr. Spalding, of North Dakota 1 23 

Mr. Stevens, of Minnesota 12S 

Mr. Wm. Ai.hen Smith, of Michigan 13S 

Mr. Morris, of Minnesota 141 

Mr. Gamble, of South Dakota 151 

Mr. Eddy, of Minnesota 155 

3 



Death of Hon. Cushman K. Davis. 



Proceedings in the Senate. 

December 3, 1900. 

Mr. Nelson. Mr. President, it is my sad duty to announce 
to the Senate the death of my late colleague, Senator Cushman 
K. Davis, at his home in St. Paul, Minn., on the 27th of 
November last, at 9 o'clock in the evening, after a lingering 
illness of more than two months. In his death our nation has 
lost one of its foremost public servants and Minnesota one of 
the noblest and best of her sous. 

On some future occasion I shall ask the Senate to set aside 
a day for the consideration of tributes to the memory of my 
deceased colleague. On this occasion I offer the resolutions 
which I send to the desk, and ask for their immediate 
consideration. 

The President pro tempore. The resolutions submitted by 
the Senator from Minnesota will be read. 

The Secretary read the resolutions, as follows: 

Resolved, That the Senate has heard with deep regret and profound 
sorrow of the death of the Hon. Cushman Kellogg Davis, late a 
Senator from the State of Minnesota. 

Resolved, That the Secretary communicate a copy of these resolutions 
to the House of Representative-. 

The resolutions were considered by unanimous consent, and 
unanimously agreed to. 

5 



6 Proceedings in the Senate. 

Mr. Allison. Mr. President, I offer an additional resolution, 
which I ask to have read and considered at this time. 

The President pro tempore. The resolution submitted by 
the Senator from Iowa will be read. 

The Secretary read the resolution, as follows: 

Resolved, That as a further mark of respect to the memory of the 
deceased, Hon. John Henry Gear and Hon. Cushman Kellogg Davis. 
the Senate do now adjourn. 

The resolution was unanimously agreed to; and (at 3 o'clock 
and 46 minutes p. m.) the Senate adjourned until Tuesday, 
December 4, 1900, at 12 o'clock meridian. 

December 4, 1900. 

A message from the House of Representatives, by Mr. \Y. J. 
Browning, its Chief Clerk, transmitted to the Senate resolu- 
tions on the death of Hon. Cushman K. Davis, late a Senator 
from the State of Minnesota; Hon. John H. Gear, late a Sena- 
tor from the State of Iowa; Hon. John H. Hoffecker, late a 
Representative from the State of Delaware, and Hon. William 
D. Daly, late a Representative from the State of New Jersey. 

December 15, 1900. 

Mr. Nelson. Mr. President, I desire to give notice that on 
Saturday, the 12th day of January next, at the close of the 
routine morning business, I shall submit resolutions commemo- 
rative of the life and services of my late distinguished colleague, 
Senator Davis. I wish also to say that I shall ask the Senate 
at that time to suspend all other business for the purpose of 
paying tribute to his memory. 

February 4, 1901. 

A message from the House communicated to the Senate the 
resolutions of the House commemorative of the life and public 
services of Hon. Cushman Kellogg Davis, late a Senator 
from the State of Minnesota. 



MEMORIAL ADDRESSES. 

January 12, 1901. 

The Chaplain, Rev. \V. H. Milburn, D. D., offered the fol- 
lowing prayer: 

We bless Thee, our Father, that through the growing 
influence of Thy Son and of Thy Holy Spirit the sentiment 
of brotherly kindness among men has grown and is increasing, 
and finds itself with emphatic expression in this the highest 
political body of the nation. And now, as we come about the 
lately open grave of the late eminent senior Senator from 
Minnesota to pay the tribute of respect and affection to his 
memory, may all the best and noblest traits of his character 
come out, and may we respond to them with genuine and 
affectionate admiration and appreciation. 

Let Thy blessing rest upon all the Senators, those who are 
detained at home by infirmity and indisposition, those who 
are here and to be present, and may this be a memorable 
day in the history of the Senate as it engraves the name and 
recollection of our departed friend and brother high among 
the statesmen of the nation. We humbly pray, through Jesus 
Christ, our Savior. Amen. 

Mr. Xelson. Mr. President, I offer the resolutions which I 
send to the desk. 

The Presiding Officer. The Secretary will read the reso- 
lutions. 

7 



8 Proceedings in the Senate. 

The Secretary read the resolutions, as follows: 

Resolved, That it is with deep regret and profound sorrow that the 
Senate hears the announcement of the death of Hon. Cushman Kellogg 
Davis, late a Senator from the State of Minnesota. 

Resolved, That the Senate extends to his family and to the people of 
the State of Minnesota sincere condolence in their bereavement. 

Resolved, That, as a mark of respect to the memory of the deceased, 
the business of the Senate be now suspended to enable his associates to 
pay fitting tribute to his high character and distinguished services. 

Resolved, That the Secretary transmit to the family of the deceased and 
to the governor of the State of Minnesota a copy of these resolutions, 
with the action of the Senate thereon. 

Resolved, That the Secretary communicate these resolutions to the 
House of Representatives. 

Resolved, That, as an additional mark of respect, at the conclusion of 
these exercises the Senate do adjourn. 



Address of Mr. Nelson, of Minnesota 



Address of Mr. Nelson, of Minnesota. 

Mr. President: Senator Cushman Kellogg Davis, of 
Minnesota, died in the sixty-third year of his age, at his home 
in St. Paul, on the 27th day of November, A. D. 1900, after a 
lingering sickness of more than two months. He died in the 
public service, in the full maturity of his great mental vigor, 
at a time when he was better equipped than ever to serve his 
country, and at a time when his country stood in need of his 
sound judgment, profound wisdom, and vast experience in 
public affairs. 

He was born at Henderson, Jefferson County, N. Y. , on the 
1 6th day of June, A. D. 1838. On his maternal side he was a 
direct descendant of Mary Allerton, the last survivor of that 
heroic band that landed from the Mayflower, and his paternal 
ancestry was also of good Puritan stock. When he was 2 
months old his parents moved to the neighborhood of Wau- 
kesha, Wis., where his father engaged in the pursuit of farm- 
ing for the next fifteen years, during which period he led the 
usual life of a farmer's son on the farm. 

He was an intellectual and highly-gifted youth, and his 
vigorous mental faculties were trained and developed in the 
district school, in Carroll College, and in Michigan University, 
from whence he graduated in 1857. He immediately thereafter 
took up and followed the study of the law, became a member 
of the Waukesha bar in 1859, and remained in active practice 
till 1862, when he entered the Army as first lieutenant of Com- 
pany B, of the Twenty-eighth Wisconsin Regiment, in the civil 
war. He served with distinction in the Army until 1864, when. 
on account of poor health, he was compelled to resign. 



io Life arid Character of Cuskman K. Davis, 

In 1865 he moved to St. Paul, Minn., and took up the prac- 
tice of the law, and soon became noted as one of the ablest, 
most prominent, and most eloquent members of the bar, with a 
large and lucrative practice. 

He was a member of the legislature in 1867, United States 
attorney for Minnesota from 1868 until 1873, and governor of 
the State in 1874 and 1875. He was one of the regents of the 
State University from 1S82 till 1898, and in 1887 was elected 
United States Senator, and reelected in 1893 and 1S99. He 
was chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations in the 
United States Senate from March, 1897, till his death, and was 
one of the commissioners who negotiated the treaty of Paris 
with Spain. 

This, in brief, is the mere outer shell of his extensive public 
career, and gives us but a scant clew to his greatness and 
worth. To trace his life, the development of his vigorous 
mind, and its wonderful resources from youth to manhood, 
from a great lawyer to a profound statesman and leader, is 
to scan a human epic, marvelous and inspiring in its progress 
and grand and enduring in its results and outcome. He was 
equipped with a mind of the first order, eager, thirsty, and 
searching. In his youth he was a most ardent and omnivorous 
student, to whom his lessons were but the doorsteps to the 
great sanctuary of knowledge, which he was ever exploring. 
He became a devouring student of history, philosophy, and 
poetry at a time when most youths are tethered to their arith- 
metic, their grammar, and their geography. And so it came 
to pass that when he finally parted with his alma mater he car- 
ried away with him a much richer and a much greater wealth 
of human knowledge than that embraced in the college curric- 
ulum. 

The trend of his mind and its comprehensive development 



Address of Mr. Nelson, of Minnesota. n 

inevitably turned him to the legal profession, and it was in this 
field that he first made his mark and first scored his great vic- 
tories. He was a most profound lawyer, win; mastered the 
great fundamental principles of the law that govern human 
affairs, and he had the intuitive faculty to correctly apply these 
to the manifold transactions of an ever-expanding civilization. 
In practice he was always ready, and always a complete master 
of the evidence, the facts, and the law of his case, and his elo- 
quence was of a character to instruct, impress, and convince 
both court and jury, and he was equally at home and equally 
strong both in a nisi prius and in an appellate court. I can 
truthfully bear witness to these facts, for it has been my 
privilege to contend with him at the bar and to hear him 
while I was sitting as one of the judges in a court of impeach- 
ment. 

When he was first elected to the Senate he was easily and 
without dispute the foremost member of the bar in Minne- 
sota. And though he was a most busy lawyer he never 
allowed the law to congeal the innate kindness of his noble 
and sympathetic heart. He was always kind and helpful to 
the young and struggling practitioner, and he never turned 
away a penniless client who had a meritorious case. He 
loved the profession, and he was beloved and admired by 
his associates, young and old. Few lawyers can point to a 
grander, a more successful, or a nobler career at the bar. 

Though absorbed in his profession, and ever a busy lawyer, 
he nevertheless always kept in touch with public affairs, and 
was always ready to lead and to guide the impulse and heart 
of our people in their aspirations for relief and reform. I well 
remember, when in the early seventies there was a great up- 
rising among the people of the Northwest against the exac- 
tions of the railroads, how he became the acknowledged leader 



12 Life and Character of Cushman K. Davis. 

of the movement, and how, in his great speech entitled " Mod- 
ern feudalism," he voiced in most eloquent and convincing 
terms the grievances complained of and the reforms desired 
by the masses of the people. That speech, which he delivered 
in many places, and his attitude on those great questions of 
public concern led him into the governor's chair, came near 
sending him to the United States Senate at that time, and 
forever endeared him to all our people, who from that day 
never ceased to have confidence in his integrity, his wisdom, 
and his honesty of purpose. While the movement which he 
thus led did not result in all the relief and reforms he and 
the masses hoped for, yet it resulted in establishing the fact, 
which had been in dispute, that railroad corporations are the 
servants of the public and are amenable to public control. 

After one term in the executive chair he again resumed his 
calling as a lawyer with more success and greater vigor than 
ever before. And in the meanwhile, though not in office, he 
remained one of the acknowledged leaders of the Republican 
party in the State, and was always ready and active to battle 
for the cause and for the best interests of the people. 

In 1S87, in obedience to a universal and pressing demand of 
our people, the legislature elected him to the United States 
Senate. And he came here, in the maturity of his great 
power and vast experience, better equipped and better fitted 
for the great work before him than most men who enter the 
Senate. He came here in middle life, with a most vigorous 
mind, an accomplished lawyer, a profound student, and a 
learned scholar, well versed in public affairs. He at once 
became prominent and one of the leaders of the Senate, but it 
was not until he became chairman of the Committee on Foreign 
Relations and our coutroversj- with Spain became acute that 
his true forum was found and his great abilities w r ere given 



Address of Mr. Nelson, of Minnesota. 13 

that field of statesmanship and diplomacy for which he was so 
well gifted and equipped. In that place and in that field he- 
was easily the first and our recognized leader and guide. Ni 1 
one was better versed than he in the diplomatic history of 
our country, and no one had studied more deeply and was 
more familiar than he with all the complicated and varied 
relations of our country with foreign nations. 

His speeches and his reports on our relations with England, 
with Spain, on our war with Spain, and on the treaty of Paris 
were epics of wisdom • and eloquence scarcely ever excelled. 
He exhausted and rendered clear and lucid the most profound 
and most intricate problems of diplomacy and statecraft. When 
he had spoken there was little, if anything, more to be said on 
the subject. While he seemed listless and indifferent to the 
mere routine work of the Senate, yet when great questions were 
at stake and great problems were to be solved he was always 
vigilant and always on the alert. He studied and passed upon 
public affairs, both at home and abroad, with the instinct and 
purpose of a statesman, and never in the spirit of a mere time- 
server or politician. His entire heart and his whole soul were 
wrapped up in his great work, and he was so absorbed by it that 
he seemed at times oblivious to all else. He was an orator of 
the highest and best type, clothing the most profound thoughts 
in the most choice and most chaste of rhetoric. His speeches, 
unlike most orators', were even more impressive, more captivat- 
ing, and more convincing in the reading of them than in the 
delivery. In his case the hearing served to whet the appetite 
for the reading of his speeches, and the reader always dis- 
covered beauties of thought and diction that had escaped him 
in the delivery. His oratory was classic, but of a modern type, 
fraught with facts and arguments of the most convincing and 
exhausting character. 



14 Life and Character of Cushman K. Davis. 

While his work at the bar and in the public service absorbed 
most of his time and attention, yet he always devoted a share 
of his time to the pursuit and study of literature and history. 
He was a profound Shakespearean scholar, thoroughly familiar 
with the life and all the works of that great genius. His book 
entitled "The Law in Shakespeare" shows how thoroughly he 
entered into the spirit and how fully he mastered and under- 
stood the broad and profound range of human knowledge and 
human wisdom possessed by that great high priest of tragedy, 
comedy, and song. He not only discovered the ' ' law ' ' in 
Shakespeare, but he also fathomed that profound analysis of the 
motives and mainsprings of human action so preeminent in the 
great poet. 

He, himself of an heroic turn of mind, naturally and irre- 
sistibly became attracted to that most wonderful and most 
startling of modern heroes, Napoleon. He was one the most 
thorough and most profound students of the life, the mission, 
and the work of this great man — familiar with ever} - phase of it 
so far as known to human vision. There was scarcely a book 
upon Napoleon, in English or in French, that he did not have 
in his library and had not read and mastered. The study of the 
life of the great hero in all its varied phases charmed him, 
chastened him, and buoyed his spirit in the somber and perplex- 
ing moments of his life. There are trying and tempestuous 
moments in the lives of men when the music of the hurricane is 
a solace, a relief, and a rest. To him Napoleon was the spirit in 
that mighty whirlwind that crushed the feudalism of ages and 
paved the way to the democracy of modern times. He dearly 
loved a good novel, not so much for the mere story as for the 
insight it afforded him of mental and moral evolutions, and espe- 
cially for the great relief and rest it gave him from the study of 
the difficult and profound problems entailed upon him as a 



Address of Mr. Nelson, of Minnesota. 15 

lawyer, a legislator, and a statesman. Many a long and weary 
night, when he was too tired to sleep, he bathed his aching 
brows and found relief in Dickens, Thackeray, Bryant, Elliott, 
Cooper, Irving, Scott, and other great novelists. These were a 
sweet lullaby to his weary but restless spirit. 

In the field of history he was a profound student and a great 
explorer, with a tenacious memory and a discriminating and 
analytic judgment. He was versed in the history of all the 
leading nations of ancient and modern times, and he was espe- 
cially familiar with and at home in the history of our own coun- 
try, of England, and of France. His great knowledge in this 
field was a supplement to his training as a lawyer, and it was 
because he was thus doubly equipped that he was so thorough, 
exhaustive, and effective in diplomacy and all that pertained to 
our foreign affairs. 

The society that charmed him most and to which he was 
most devoted was the fine and extensive collection of books in 
his own library. Here he felt thoroughly at home and was 
never lonesome. His books were a part of his life, and his 
dear associates. Here, more than anywhere else, he loved to 
meet his friends, to converse with them on literature, history, 
and affairs of state, and to introduce them to his mute com- 
panions. Here he seemed possessed of an inspiration that 
made him more charming and nearer and dearer to his friends 
than anywhere else. It was his holy of holies, sacred to him, 
and. because of that fact, sacred to those who communed with 
him there. 

His patriotism was of the loftiest and purest kind. He loved 
his country, not as a heathen loves his idol, but as a parent 
loves his child. He loved his country because it is noble and 
just, and because it is the home of liberty, tempered with law, 
wholesome, blessed, and untarnished. He abhorred all show 



1 6 Life and Character of Cuskman K. Davis. 

and .sham, and scorned all posing and display. There was 
nothing trifling nor fictitious in his nature. He was sincere, 
conscientious, and fearless, both in private and public life, and 
while he was most kind and approachable to all, yet he was 
choice and deliberate in his friendships. He looked for loyalty 
and good faith, and once assured of that he yielded his whole 
heart and his whole soul, under all emergencies, to his friends. 
To me he was on all occasions most kind and helpful. 

I feel his loss most deeply. His death has left a void in my 
heart which none can fill. We all miss him in the Senate — 
miss him for his goodness, kindness, and great worth; miss him 
for his wisdom, his eloquence, and noble example. His death 
was a great bereavement, not only to his friends and his asso- 
ciates, but to the entire country. There are some gaps in the 
line of battle that can be easily filled, but that gap in the line 
of battle he held when he passed away no one can fill as com- 
pletely and as truly as he did. No public man had a warmer 
place in the hearts of the people than he had. I have never 
seen a larger funeral than his. It was attended in large num- 
bers by young and old, in all walks of life, from all parts of the 
State. They came in no perfunctory mood, but in a spirit of 
heaviness, grief, and sorrow, as though each had been bereaved 
of his dearest and most beloved of friends. There were many 
beautiful flowers placed as tokens of grief and affection over his 
remains, but the most impressive and most inspiring tokens 
were the silent tears that trickled on the cheeks of so many sad 
faces on that day. His mortal remains have been laid away in 
their final resting place, but the spirit of his life, his mission, 
and the great work he wrought will remain with us as a token, 
as an example, and as an inspiration for all time to come. 

When can his glory fade? 
Oh, the brave charge he made. 



Address of Mr, Hoar, of Massachusetts. 17 



Address of Mr. Hoar, of Massachusetts. 

Mr. President: There is 110 Senator who would not be glad 
to lay a wreath of honor and affection on the monument of 
Cushman K. DAVIS. That, however, is more especially the 
right of his colleague and his successor and the members of 
the great committee where he won so much of his fame. I 
ought to say but a few words. 

The Senate, as its name implies, has been from the begin- 
ning, with few exceptions, an assembly of old men. In the 
course of nature many of its members die in office. That has 
been true of thirty-eight Senators since I came to the Capitol. 
Others, a yet larger number, die soon after they leave office. 
Of the men with whom I have served in this Chamber fifty- 
eight more are now dead, making in all ninety-six, enough and 
to spare to organize another Senate elsewhere. To that num- 
ber has been added every Vice-President but two. Upon those 
who have died in office eulogies have been pronounced in this 
Chamber and in the House. The speakers have obeyed the 
rule demanded by the decencies of funeral occasions — nil de 
mortuis nisi bouum — if not the command born of a tenderer 
pity for human frailty — jam parce sepulto. But in general, 
with scarcely an exception, the portraitures have been true and 
faithful. They prove that the people of the American States, 
speaking through their legislative assemblies, are not likely to 
select men to represent them in this august assembly who are 
lacking in high qualities either of intellect or of character. 
However that may be, it is surely true of Mr. Davis that what- 
ever has been or will be said of him to-day, or was said of him 
when the news of his death first shocked the country, is just 
S. Doc. 230 2 



i8 Life and Character of Cushman K. Davis. 

what would have been said when he was alive by any man who 
knew him. I have served with him here nearly fourteen years. 
I have agreed with him and I have differed from him in regard 
to matters of great pith and moment which deeply stirred the 
feelings of the people, as they did mine, and doubtless did his 
own. I never heard any man speak of him but with respect 
and kindness. 

Of course, Mr. President, in this great century which is just 
over, when our Republic — this infant Hercules — has been grow- 
ing from its cradle to its still youthful manhood, the greatest 
place for a live man has been that of a soldier in time of war 
and that of a statesman in time of peace. Cushman K. Davis 
was both. He did a man's full duty in both. No man values 
more than I do the function of the man of letters. No man 
reveres more than I do the man of genius who in a loving and 
reverent way writes the history of a great people, or the poet 
from whose lyre comes the inspiration which induces heroic 
action in war and peace". But I do not admit that the title of 
the historian or that of the poet to the gratitude and affec- 
tion of mankind is greater than that of the soldier who saves 
nations, or that of the statesman who creates or preserves them, 
or who makes them great. I have no patience when I read 
that famous speech of Gladstone, he and Tennyson being 
together on a journey, when he modestly puts Mr. Tennyson's 
title to the gratitude of mankind far above his own. Glad- 
stone, then prime minister, declared that Tennyson would be 
remembered long after he was forgotten. That may be true. 
But whether a man be remembered or whether he be forgotten; 
whether his work be appreciated or no; whether his work be 
known or unknown at the time it is accomplished, is not the 
test of its greatness or its value to mankind. The man who 
keeps this moral being, or helps to keep this moral being we 



Address of Mr. Hoar, of Massachusetts. 19 

call a State in the paths of justice and righteousness and happi- 
ness, the direct effect of whose action is felt in the comfort and 
happiness and moral life of millions upon millions of human 
lives, who opens and constructs great highways of commerce, 
who makes schools and universities not only possible but 
plenty, who brings to pass great policies that allure men from 
misery, and poverty, and oppression, and serfdom in one world, 
to free, contented, happy, prosperous homes in another, is a 
great benefactor to mankind, whether his work be accomplished 
with sounding of trumpets, or stamping of feet, or clapping of 
hands, or the roar and tumult of popular applause, or whether 
it be done in the silence of some committee room, and no man 
know it but by its results. 

I am not ready to admit that even Shakespeare worked on a 
higher plane, or was a greater power on earth, than King Alfred 
or George Washington, even if it be that he will survive them 
both in the memory of man. The name of every man but one 
who fought with Leonidas at Thermopylae is forgotten. But is 
.Eschylus greater than Leonidas, or Miltiades, or Themistocles? 
The literature of Athens preserves to immortality the fame of 
its great authors. But it was Solon, and Pericles, and Miltiades 
that created and saved and made great the city, without which 
the poets could not have existed. Mr. Tennyson himself came 
nearer the truth than his friend, Mr. Gladstone, when he said: 

He 
That, through the channels of the state, 
Conveys the people's wish, is great; 
His name is pure; his fame is free. 

There have been soldiers whose courage saved the day in 
great decisive battles when the fate of nations hung in the 
scale, yet whose most enduring monument was the column of 
smoke which rose when their death shot was fired. There 



20 Life and Character of Cuskman K. Davis. 

have been statesmen whose silent influence has decided the 
issue when the country was at the parting of the ways, of 
whose service history takes no heed. The great Ohio Terri- 
tory, now six imperial States, was twice saved to freedom 
by the almost unnoticed action of a single man. With all 
respect for the man of letters, we are not yet quite ready to 
admit that the trumpeter is better than the soldier, or the 
painter greater than the lion. 

There is no need of many words to sum up the life and 
character of Cushman Davis. His life was in the daylight. 
Minnesota knew him. His country knew him and loved him. 
He was a good soldier in his youth, and a great Senator in 
his maturer manhood. What can be said more, or what can 
lie said better, to sum up the life of an American citizen? 
He offered his life for his country when life was all before 
him, and his State and his country rewarded him with their 
highest honor. The great orator and philosopher of Rome 
declared in his youth, and repeated in his age. that death 
could not come prematurely to a man who had been consul. 
This man surely might be accounted ready to die. He had 
discharged honorably life's highest duty, and his cup of honor 
and of glory was full. 

We are thinking to-day of something more than a public 
sorrow. We are mourning the loss of a close and delightful 
companionship, a companionship which lightened public care 
and gave infinite pleasure to private iutercouse. If he had 
never held office, if his name had never been heard even beyond 
the boundaries of a single municipality, he would have been 
almost anywhere a favorite and foremost citizen. He was, 
in the first place, always a gentleman, and a true gentleman 
always gives tone to any company in which he is found, 
whether it be among the rulers of States or the humblest 



Address of Mr. Hoar, of Massachusetts. 21 

gathering of friendly neighbors. Lord Erskine said on a great 
occasion : 

It is impossible to define in terms the proper feelings of a genii. 
but their existence has supported this country for mam ayes, and sin- 
might perish if they were lost. 

Certainly our friend had this quality. He was everywhere a 
gentleman. He met every occasion in life with a simple and 
quiet courtesy. There was not much of deference in it. There 
was no yielding or supplication or timidity in it. I do not 
think he ever asked favors, though no man was more willing 
to grant them. But there is something more than this in the 
temper of which I am speaking. The man who possesses it 
gives unconsciously to himself or to his associates tone to every 
circle, as I just said, in which he is found. So, wherever he 
was, his manner of behavior prevailed, whatever might have 
happened to the same men if they had been left alone. 

Senator Davis was a man who kept well his own counsel. 
He was a man to whom it was safe for other men to trust their 
counsel. His conversation, to which it was always a delight to 
listen, had no gossip in it. Still less had it ever anything of 
ill nature or sarcasm. He liked to share with a friend the 
pleasure he took in finding some flower or gem of literature 
which, for long ages till he found it in some out-of-the-way 
nook, had- 

Blushed unseen, 
And wasted its sweetness on the desert air. 

He had what Jeremy Taylor calls ' ' the great endearment of 
prudent and temperate speech." 

His conversation was sparkling and witty and full of variety, 
but no spark from him was ever a cinder in the eye of his 
friend. 

He had a learning rare among public men, and, for its 



22 Life and Character of Cushman K. Davis. 

variety, rare, I think, among scholars. He would bring out 
bits of history, full of interest and instruction, from the most 
obscure sources, in common conversation. He was an excellent 
Latin scholar. He had read and mastered Tacitus, and a man 
who has mastered Tacitus has had the best gymnastic training 
of the intellect, both in vigor and style, which the resources of 
all literature can supply. 

One secret of his great popularity with his companions here — 
a popularity I think unexcelled; indeed, I incline to think 
unequaled by that of any other man with whom I have served — 
is that to which the late Justin Morrill owed so much. He 
never debated. He rarely answered other men's arguments, 
never with warmth or heat. But he was exceedingly tena- 
cious of his own opinion. He was, in the things he stood for, 
as unyielding as flint and true as steel. But his flint or steel 
never struck out a spark by collision with any other. He 
spoke very rarely in debate in general; only when his official 
place on his committee, or something which concerned his own 
constituents especially, made speaking absolutely imperative. 
Then he gave his opinion as a judge gives it, or as a delegate 
to some great international council might be supposed to give 
it; responsible for it himself, but undertaking no responsibility 
for other men's opinion or conduct; never assuming that it was 
his duty or within his power to convert, or change, or instruct 
them, still less to chastise them. Whether that way be the best 
way for usefulness in a deliberative body, especially in a legis- 
lative body of a great popular government, I will not undertake 
now to say. Certainly it is not the common way here or else- 
where. It is very rare, indeed, that any man possessing the 
great literary and oratorical power of Mr. Davis, especially a 
man to whom nobody ever thought of imputing timidity 
or undue desire to enjoy public favor, or want of absolute 



Address of Mr. Hoar, of Massachusetts. 23 

confidence in his own opinions, will be found to refrain from 
employing these qualities to persuade or convince other men. 

He had a rare and exquisite gift which, if he had been a 
man of letters and not a man engaged in a strenuous public 
life, would have brought him great fame. Once in a while 
he said something in private, and more rarely, though once or 
twice, in a public speech, which reminded you of the delicate 
touch of Hawthorne. His likening President Cleveland and 
Mr. Blount, looking upon the late royalty of the Sandwich 
Islands with so much seriousness, to Don Quixote and Sancho 
Panza taking in great earnest the spectacle of a theatrical 
representation at a country fair and eager to rescue the dis- 
tressed damsel, was one of the most exquisite felicities of the 
literature of the Senate. 

He had great pride in his ancestry, and was a great lover of 
the history of New England and Plymouth, from which they 
came, though he never gave himself airs on account of it. He 
was a descendant of Robert Cushman, the preacher of the Pil- 
grims, whose service was in a thousand ways of such value to 
the little colony at Plymouth. Yet it had never happened to 
him to visit the scenes with which the feet of his ancestors had 
been so familiar, until a few years ago he did me the honor to 
be my guest in Massachusetts, and spent a few days in visiting 
her historic places. He gazed upon Boston and Plymouth and 
Concord reverently as ever Moslem gazed upon Mecca or the 
feet of palmer stood by the holy sepulcher. That week to him 
was crowded with a delight with which few other hours in his 
life could compare. I had hoped that it might be my fortune 
and his that he might visit Massachusetts again, that her peo- 
ple might gather in her cities to do him honor, and might learn 
to know him better, and might listen to the sincere eloquence 
of his voice. But it was ordered otherwise. 



24 Life and Character of Cushman K. Davis. 

There are other things his country had hoped for him. She 
had hoped a longer and higher service, perhaps the highest 
service of all. But the fatal and inexorable shaft has stricken 
him down in the full vigor of a yet strenuous manhood. The 
great transactions in which he had borne so large a part still 
remain incomplete and their event is still uncertain. 

There is a painting which a great Italian master left unfin- 
ished. The work was taken up and completed by a disciple. 
The finished picture bears this inscription: "What Titian left 
unfinished Palma reverently completed and dedicated to God." 
So may our beloved Republic find always, when one servant 
leaves his work unfinished, another who will take it up and 
dedicate it to the country and to God. 



Address of Mr. Morgan, of Alabama. 25 



Address of Mr. Morgan, of Alabama. 

Mr. President: If the purpose of these obsequies was only 
to eulogize the friend who so well deserved the esteem of his 
colleagues and so moved the Senate at all times with regard 
and affection for his generous and unliable traits, I would 
accomplish my part of this melancholy duty by repeating in 
your hearing the simple call of recognition, "The Senator 
from Minnesota," which never failed to attract the attention 
of the Senate or to give us pleasure. 

If Cushman K. Davis were here to-day to receive that rec- 
ognition from the Chair, in this important time of serious 
counsel and debate, the Senate would feel stronger and safer in 
forming the new lines of public policy and duty upon which 
we must enter, so that we shall not fall short of the demands 
that have fallen upon us to try the strength of our courage, 
our fidelity to our country, and our confidence in the plan 
and principles of republican government. 

His absence from the Senate is keenly felt at this time be- 
cause the conditions for which we are now engaged in provid- 
ing were, in a large part, created by measures in which he had 
a leading influence. 

It is, perhaps, as just a tribute to his abilities and acquire- 
ments as could be stated to say of him that he was fully 
equipped for the questions that have arisen from the war with 
Spain, questions that are new to us and now excite anxious 
inquiry. 

The Senator from Minnesota always remembered the dignity, 
honor, and restraining influence of that high official title. 

It has a singular place of distinguished honor among the 
titles that have been bestowed by governments upon public 



26 Life and Character of Cushman K. Davis. 

servants who have been intrusted with powers of great magni- 
tude. 

The Roman senators, with all their power and glory, and the 
French senators for life, in the wide scope of their power and 
influence, have not been representatives of great sovereignties 
in a grand council of States, such as the Senate of the United 
States, which sits as a high court of final jurisdiction on all 
questions of impeachment, and is coordinate with the Chief 
Executive in the treaty-making power, and has a voice that 
can not be stifled in the enactment of all the laws for the gov- 
ernment of this grand Union of equal States. 

The history of the American Senate includes in its list of 
Senators who have passed away many illustrious names that are 
not darkened by comparison with any lawmakers who have ever 
lived. 

But it is not the illustrious men who have occupied this great 
forum that have given to the Senate its real or entire value 
in the estimation of the world. That estimate is due to the 
character of the labors of the great body of Americans who 
have held commissions in this high council of sovereign States, 
which opened with the establishment of the Government of the 
United States and has continued in uninterrupted organization, 
without one moment of interregnum. 

The Senate is the only permanent controlling body in the 
Government of the United States. There is always a quorum 
of qualified Senators in commission, and the transfer of the 
executive power from the hands of one President to another, 
and of the political power from one Congress to another, by 
elections, has no effect upon the Senate to suspend its powers 
under the Constitution, but only in some cases to suspend their 
full exercise, to await the concurrent action of other depart- 
ments of the Government. 



Address oj Mr. Morgan, <>/ Alabama. 27 

In this sense the Senate is the custodian of the vital and 
continuing power of the Federal Republic, while the States, 
as perfect civil governments, arc the repositories of the sov- 
ereignty of the people. 

In this great function the Senate is endowed by the Con- 
stitution with a power and majesty that no other tribunal has 
ever worn, and in comparison with which the mythical power 
derived from a strain of royal blood or the prerogatives of an 
imperial scepter are only a deceptive refuge of nations that 
have no faith in themselves. The Senator who appreciates 
the honor of a commission in this body, and is sensible of 
the duties it enjoins and of the wide opportunity it offers for 
bestowing blessings on his country and the world, will sedately 
reckon with himself upon the fitness of his conduct and the 
pure impartiality and justice of his utterances and his votes 
upon all occasions and with reference to all questions that 
arise. He will not set his personal success, or renown, as a 
star in the heaven of his ambitious aspirations, to which he 
will direct the course of his journey. He will be content to 
do the duty that falls to him faithfully, according to his 
ability, and leave the reward, that never fails, to the judg- 
ment of his colleagues and the approval of the people. 

Of the man}- great and worthy men who have held commis- 
sions in the Senate only a few have reached the zenith of fame. 

When we turn over the leaves of our statute books and 
examine the vast number of laws whose real authors are 
forgotten, and see the care and wisdom bestowed in their 
enactment and the history they record, and the strength, 
harmony, and justice of this wonderful system of statutory 
jurisprudence, we bow with reverence to the memory of these 
great but silent artificers of a true and noble temple of justice, 
in which wisdom, truth, and virtue preside. The stars differ 



28 Life and Character of Cushman A". Davis. 

in magnitude, but every star that is set in the firmament adds 
its ineffable light to the heavens, though no human hand can 
place them in their true position on a map. 

Mr. Davis won a high place in the Senatorial galaxy, 
which is distinctly marked with the imperishable legend of 
"plain duty honestly performed with laborious care," and is 
crowned with the light of brilliant endowments. 

He left nothing to chance and never omitted to dig the 
foundations of his structures to what he believed was the solid 
rock of truth. He was among the toilers of the Senate to 
whose industry in research the country owes a safe deliverance 
from many unseen dangers and an honest debt of gratitude. 
We are paying only a part of that debt in these obsequies. 
The people will pay the balance in ample rewards of fame. 

A standard has been established by the growth of opinion 
in the Senate and the country, the advanced line of which 
is at least as high as an}' nation has established for the highest 
rank in statesmanship and forensic eloquence. Three great 
Senators have occupied that line without dissent, and others 
who have passed away are noted by our country for places 
on that line. 

It is not expected that any will surpass Clay, Webster, and 
Calhoun, and it is not within the scope of the true Senato- 
rial aspiration to reach sublimer heights than these immortals 
occupy, but their example stands as an invitation to all who 
fully value the honor, and dutifully toil to reach this supreme 
distinction to which they have attained. 

This door is closed to any man whose motive is mere self- 
assertion, and who prefers notoriety to renown. The brilliant 
Senator, whose early death we deplore, ma}" have had very high 
aspirations, for he had great abilities, but he sought his honors 
through toil, fidelity, and holy love of his native land. 



Address of Mr. Morgan^ of Alabama. 29 

Perhaps his strongest sentiment, with reference to his con- 
duct as a Senator, was a dutiful regard for the dignit) 
reputation of this great tribunal. He sank himself in his 
character of Senator. 

In his associations in the Senate and on committees his def- 
erence to the rights and opinions of his colleagues was sin- 
cere, courteous, and graceful. I do not recall an incident in 
all his career in which he was discourteous or brusque toward 
an opponent. Xot that he avoided any stress of earnest 
contention in debate, nor that he yielded his convictions to 
the opposing views of anyone, however highly thought of as 
authority, but because he felt that the freedom of discussions, 
which he always approved, is an illusion when it is cramped by 
the weight of high authority and is sometimes destroyed by 
the use of epithets, censoriousness, irritating criticism, and 
grosser forms of detraction. 

Mr. Davis never so far forgot the high office he held as to 
use his powers, which were ample, as a learned and able man, 
to force an opponent to the wall or to subject him to ridicule. 
When a Senator is thus assailed, if he is in the line of duty, 
the blow falls upon a sovereign State. Such a blow he would 
never wantonly inflict. 

When he was placed at the head of the Committee on For- 
eign Relations he reached a field of opportunity in which his 
abilities would find their highest development in the service 
of the country. 

He was a careful and deeply interested student of the history 
of our diplomatic relations with foreign countries. His tastes 
for eloquent literature and his legal acumen in the analysis oi 
statutes and treaties, worded with the highest skill to cover or 
else to leave open debatable ground, led him into profound 
studies of the history and art of diplomacy. 



30 Life and Character of Cushman K. Davis. 

He took a proud interest in the history of the single cen- 
tury of American diplomatic correspondence, and traced with 
enthusiasm the ground over which our infant Republic led 
the ancient empires of the earth as a pioneer in new lines of 
progress that led, without faltering, up to the highest planes 
of Christian civilization that have yet been occupied. 

When he took that chairmanship he had unusual wealth of 
preparation for the discharge of its duties, and he soon made a 
record of such high value in his reports that the Senate relied 
upon his judgment and accepted his advice with unusual confi- 
dence. While he was chairman of that committee he was 
invited by the President of the United States, in company with 
two of his Senatorial colleagues and other distinguished per- 
sons, to negotiate a treaty of peace with Spain. 

I will not attempt to present the history of that remarkable 
negotiation, in which the highest skill and learning were 
employed, and the most anxious and trying appeals to inter- 
national forbearance and sensibility were addressed to our 
commissioners. It was not an effort to repress the wrath of 
contending nations, verging to the point of armed collision, 
but the demanding of justice for the stronger, at the close of 
an armistice that followed the most sudden and complete over- 
throw of sovereign power in lost possessions that had occurred 
in modern times. 

The proud Empire that had held all Europe obedient to her 
pleasure and other continents and archipelagoes as feudatories 
was yielding her last possessions in the East and West Indies to 
a Republic that was younger by a century than any vice-royalty 
she had established in the Western Hemisphere. This advance 
from despotism to liberty was on the ground of her inability 
to do the justice to her dependencies that is required by the 
advance in human liberty now demanded by the code and creed 



Address of Mr. Morgan, of Alabama. 31 

of all Christendom, and the United States were constrained 
to lead it. 

It was an occasion to move the sympathies of the European 
nations to their greatest depths, and they looked on with 
scrutinizing jealousy while the diplomatic contest continued at 
Paris. 

In that noble body of American commissioners Mr. Davis 
was conspicuous for his learning, his tact, and his fearless 
advocacy of the right. It was a contest so notable that it will 
stand for a high precedent in later ages, ami so satisfactory 
in the argument and the results that it has silenced criticism 
and has excited the admiration and invoked the good will of 
all the nations. 

It was a task of self-denial that was never before presented 
to a conquering power — that we claim nothing for war in- 
demnity, while paying for all the public property surrendered, 
and for all the devastations of a long civil war that Spain 
had inflicted upon our own people. 

This task was assumed and this expenditure of more than 
$200,000,000 was made for no other reason — besides the pres- 
ervation of our domestic peace — than to give the people of the 
Spanish islands the relief from despotism that can only be 
found in a government republican in form, one of whose 
cardinal principles is the divorce of church and state. 

This great task was assumed by our commissioners in the 
treaty of Paris, and we are now engaged in working it out 
by the repression of a rebellious oligarchy among some of the 
people whom we undertook to redeem from the iron heel of 
the Spanish Empire. 

Then, as now, the motive is the same, the high resolve is 
unchanged, and the decree is final, that the spirit of repub- 
lican constitutional liberty, which has driven out monarchy, 



32 Life and Character of Cushman K. Davis. 

will also expel the curse of political brigandage and of sec- 
tarian and class rule from these islands, thereby providing that 
the people shall, indeed, be free and self-governing. 

Doubtless this was the triumph that the noble American 
Senator had hoped to share with his colleagues in the accom- 
plishment of this wurk that caused him to express, with tears. 
on his dying bed the pathetic words: "Oh, that I could live 
for three years to serve my country ! ' ' 

He did not live, but "his works do follow him." 

Two great and novel alternatives were presented to our 
commissioners in the negotiations at Paris as to Porto Rico and 
the Philippines, alike. They were whether we should annex 
those islands or whether we should abandon them to Spain. 

The choice of annexation was inevitable, yet it was a great 
trial. Spain claimed the Philippines with the anxiety of a 
lion deprived of its prey, and we resisted that claim with the 
firmness that had already inscribed on our banners ' ' Deliver- 
ance to the oppressed." 

On that commission and afterwards in the Senate Mr. Davis 
and his Senatorial colleagues stood by this great purpose, and 
it became the supreme law of the land. 

The fame that is thus interwoven with these events will 
grow brighter as time grows longer and nations grow greater 
and divine truth spreads its dominion over the nations now 
in darkness. That it taxes us with new duties that may be 
perilous is the just result and the honorable compensation, 
the true recompense of reward, for the wonderful increase of 
power that has been almost suddenly bestowed upon us. 

"To whomsoever much is given, of him shall much be 
required," is as true of nations as it is of men. 

The treaty of Paris places upon this Republic its first cru- 
cial test, its real trial of strength. In war we won our 



Address of Mr. Morgan, of Alabama. 33 

liberties from the proudest nation in the world. In war we 
settled a new basis of those liberties upon broader founda- 
tions. In war we have expanded our territories half around 
the world and have defended the freedom of religion in the 
heart of pagan China. In war we have prospered as no other 
nation has prospered, even in peace. Yet our mission is 
peace; our people love peace, and in all our wars we have 
only conquered peace for our own country and our own peo- 
ple, until the treaty of Paris made us the almoners of this 
blessing to other oppressed people. The real burden that 
this great trust imposes upon our Republic in the treaty of 
Paris is to provide peace and prosperity to the people that it 
incorporated with the people of the United States. 

Mr. Davis assumed his share of this national duty with 
alacrity and without any misgivings as to the future. He 
felt the common impulse of the American people, that obedi- 
ence to duty will not permit us to shrink from this noble 
task. It has required war, which vicious combinations may 
protract; but a war that ends in firmly established peace and 
secures constitutional liberty and the freedom of religion to 
the people realizes the highest duty of Christian benevolence. 
Rich argosies, ladened with the wealth of the earth and the 
oceans, will come and go between the East and the West. 
and the breath of peace will fill their ample sails. 

The nations that were strangers and enemies will become 
neighbors, and friendship will unite them in fellowship as 
they exchange the bounties of all productive industry. 

In their memories honored names will be familiar as the 
friends of humanity. 

Among these none will be more beloved than our commis- 
sioners who concluded the treaty of Paris, and among these 
no name will be revered above that of Cushman K. Davis. 
S 1 )nc 230 -\ 



34 Life and Character of Cushman K. Davis. 



Address of Mr. Clark, of Wyoming. 

Mr. President: Truly there is "a prince and a great man 
fallen this day in Israel." 

When the news was flashed along the wires that Cushman 
K. Davis had reached the end of his earthly labors and had 
entered into God's rest, we could hardly realize that our honored 
and beloved colleague had passed forever from our mortal fellow- 
ship. In the meridian of his life, in the full enjoyment of his 
wonderful mental faculties, at a time when his country so greatly 
needed his services, it seemed that " his sun had set while it was 
yet day. ' ' His passing seemed so premature that it was difficult 
for us to believe, as we had been taught, that ' ' the judgments of 
the Lord are true and righteous altogether." 

The life of Cushman K. Davis, Mr. President, from young 
manhood to the end, is strongly interwoven with the history of 
his State and nation. Reared and educated in the new West, he 
early acquired that breadth of mind and honesty of purpose 
which are so often produced in a virgin country, and he escaped 
the narrowing influences and real provincialism that often are 
found in older communities and more densely settled sections. 
To his naturally elastic mind his earlier environments gave an 
ever broadening horizon. It was most natural that he should, 
in the time of his country's peril, offer himself as a defender of 
her integrity, for he had a sublime belief in the great American 
Republic; and this confidence in his nation and her future 
increased from year to year until his death. It is no wonder that 
in war he should have served her with gallantry and distinction. 
It was his nature, and he could not have done otherwise. From 
youth to death his highest ambition was for the honor, the integ- 
rity, and the glory of his country. 



Address of Mr. Clark, of Wyoming. -^S 

Mr. President, my first acquaintance with Senator DAVIS 
dates back but for a decade, but at the very threshold of oui 
acquaintance I was struck, as all of us must have been, with 
his wonderful fund of information, political and general, his 
accuracy of mind and statement, his grasp upon great questions 
of state, and his unbending and unyielding Americanism. He 
was one of the gentlest and most unassuming of men, tolerant 
of the opinion of others and yet confident in his own judg- 
ment. Day by day compelled to meet and grapple with the 
difficult and knotty problems of the present, almost his sole 
recreation was in delving into the history, the philosophy, and 
the romance of the past. He was a master of ancient as well 
as of modern literature. To sit at his fireside, political life and 
legal problems being brushed for the time aside, and to hear 
from his lips the gathered treasures of his reading was of itself 
a liberal education; quiet and modest, assuming nothing to 
himself, I think it will be the opinion of all that no member of 
this body had a greater fund of general information than he. 
A student in the true sense of the term, nothing seemed to 
escape his observation and inquiry. 

Of his career at the bar I shall say nothing, except to observe 
that none in all the great Northwest was more honored and 
successful than he. He loved his chosen profession, and she 
richly rewarded his devotion. From the trial court to that of 
last resort he deserved and received the highest respect, not 
only for his great legal attainments, but for his unswerving 
honesty of purpose as well, and this esteem and respect of 
bench and bar is a far higher reward to the true lawyer than 
money, emoluments, and fees, no matter how high they may 
be heaped. But it is of his work as Senator during the last 
three years I desire especially at this time to speak. During 
that time he has been chairman of the great Committee on 



36 Life and Character of Oushman A'. Davis. 

Foreign Relations of this Senate, and he gave to the affairs and 
duties of that committee his unremitting attention and labors. 
It will never he told or known how closely his duties pressed 
upon him, but the country well knows and will always enjoy 
the fruits of his careful and continual labors. He was a Sena- 
tor whose voice was too seldom heard in this Chamber, and yet 
he was a master of constitutional and international law. We 
who listened to his great speech in executive session on the 
war resolution of 1898 and the report accompanying it will 
never forget it, and a great regret ever since has been that, 
because of the peculiar rules and procedure of this body, such 
a clear exposition, both as to law and fact, of that great ques- 
tion with which this nation then had to deal should have been 
lost to the country. 

As chairman of his committee his work was continuous, 
eager, and efficient. I do not think it too much to say that in 
all the deliberations of that committee during the past three 
years, in all the important and delicate questions arising, he 
was not only the chairman, but the guiding spirit. His intense 
Americanism, his patriotism, his belief in his country, were 
always to the fore and seemed a propelling force, not only of 
that committee, but of this Senate, as well in the troublesome 
days from the beginning of the Spanish war until its close. 
His work as a member of the peace commission at Paris was a 
fitting close to his labors during the war. He and his distin- 
guished colleagues taught the world a new diplomacy and 
proved its strength — the diplomacy unknown before that war, 
a diplomacy of honest, open, frank, and truthful statement; 
and the result of their labors placed our nation, in the eyes of 
the world, where she rightfully belonged — in the van of nations. 

Mr. President, I regret that I am unable to do justice to the 
life and services of Senator Davis. What I have said has been 



Address Oj Mr. Clark, of Wyoming . 37 

because of my love for him and of my admiration and appre- 
ciation of his public services. England's cynic poet said, in 
speaking of eulogies and epitaphs: 

When all is done, upon the tomb is seen, 

Not what he was, but what he should have been. 

Such- is not the truth with respect to our tributes to our 
departed friend, because in his ardent love of country, his devo- 
tion to public duty, his services in this body, what he should 
have been that he was. He quietly rests in his beautiful home 
city, the lamented son of his State and the Republic he loved. 
He gloried in his nation's past, and he looked forward with 
hope and confidence to her future. May his hope be justified, 
and may he rest in peace. 



38 Life and Character of Cushman A". Davis. 



Address of Mr. Lodge, of Massachusetts. 

Mr. President: "Death," said one of the wisest of men, 
"hath this also: That it openeth the gate to good fame, and 
extinguisheth envy." Bacon, I conceive, meant more by envy 
than the mere jealousy of one man toward another. He in- 
tended, we may suppose, that general lack of just appreciation 
from which every man of distinction, especially in public serv- 
ice, often suffers in his lifetime. And he rightly says that 
death openeth the gate to good fame, which is but another way 
of declaring that it is the first attempt to do justice to a man's 
career and services. It is a common error that eulogies, espe- 
cially those spoken in the freshness of grief, are necessarily as 
little to be believed as the epitaph held by Lord Byron to be 
typical of falsehood. This error springs from another equally 
common, that criticism means fault-finding, whereas true criti- 
cism, which alone is of value, consists quite as much in pointing 
out beauties as in enumerating defects. Therefore it follows 
that the eulogy fulfills the kindly function of criticism, the 
other having been already amply performed during the life- 
time of him whose virtues are celebrated in a funeral oration. 
Thus the balance is made even, and in the two combined, his- 
tory, looking down long hence with calm and patient eyes, 
will find the man and do him justice. If, in the first burst of 
sorrow, eulogy is overstrained, history can be trusted to set it 
right. At the worst, excess of praise is a good fault, for the 
chances are very great that the living man in his public life got 
less praise than he was entitled to and far more of misunder- 
standing than anyone deserves. Even if he did not endure in 
his public service the worst forms of calumny and detraction, 
he is certain to have suffered by comparisons made with a past 



Address of Mr. Lodge, of Massachusetts. 39 

which never existed, whose trailing clouds of glory are often 
conjured up by the envy of which Bacon speaks in order to 
make the living man of the moment look small and earthy. 
So it may be said that men act wisely to speak well of the 
newly dead, for thereby they do more than testify to their sor- 
row, inasmuch as they in some degree help to set the balance 
straight, and thus give their mite toward the advancement of 
the final truth. 

I have been moved to make these imperfect suggestions 
because as I have thought of Senator Davis, whose untimely 
death has brought so much sorrow to those who knew him, I 
have felt that he was a man who failed to receive in life a full 
appreciation. I do not mean by this that he was not amply 
honored, admired, and beloved by the great State which sent 
him here, or that he failed of understanding and appreciation 
in this Chamber, where his best work was done. Still less 
would I suggest that he did not receive, in due measure, the 
recognition which is witnessed by election to great public 
place, for I have known no one who held the office of Senator 
more highly than he, or who had a more exalted conception of 
the dignity and power of the Senate. Least of all do I mean 
that he suffered peculiarly from unfair criticism and ignoble 
aspersion of motive or conduct. On the contrary, I should 
think that he was exceptionally fortunate in these respects, and 
had it been otherwise, he was a man who knew that life was a 
battle, who did not fear blows, and who never complained or 
whimpered over the chances of war. When I say that he did 
not receive in his lifetime a just and full appreciation, in pro- 
portion to his ability and his achievement, I mean that he did 
not receive it from the country at large, and I say this because 
I know both the achievement and the ability and rate them 
very highly. 



40 Life and Character of Cushman K. Davis. 

Others here and elsewhere will trace his career and tell of the 
offices he held and the honors he won far better than I could 
hope to do. Of his more intimate and personal qualities as a 
friend and an associate I shall not trust myself to speak. I 
desire only to explain why I think he was not fully appreciated 
as a public man and why I rate so highly his achievement. 
The first question is easily answered. Senator Davis lacked 
his due meed of appreciation in life for two reasons, one gen- 
eral and one particular. He suffered from the conventional 
tendency to belittle men of the present because the}' can not, 
without thought and trouble, be brought for judgment into 
proper perspective with the past and because there are many 
minds to which the belittling process is agreeable. He also 
suffered from a defect in himself. In an age when the art of 
advertisement of both men and wares has been carried to the 
highest pitch of noise and color he had neither the desire nor 
the faculty of advertising himself, either by lusty shouting or 
by stealthy suggestion. He was essentially modest, and shrank 
from even speaking in public except when it was a duty or a 
necessity. 

A proper estimate of his ability and his achievement can not 
be so briefly given and supported as the explanation of their 
imperfect recognition. Indeed, it is not easy to analyze mind 
and character within the limits which this occasion requires. 
Yet, without an attempt, at least, in this direction I should fail 
entirely in what I most wish to say. 

My friendship with Senator Davis began when I entered the 
Senate, nearly eight years ago. I soon came to know him 
well, and the knowledge bred affection, for he was a very lova- 
ble man, a loyal friend, a delightful companion, full of humor, 
sense, and originality. Our views 011 the public matters upon 
which we were engaged were usually in accord, and we had 



Address of Mr. Lodge, of Massachusetts. 41 

many other subjects upon which we sympathized, so that I 
came to pass many hours in his company and to talk with him 
about man}- topics. 

I desire to speak of him now in the two aspects from which 
I learned to know best his unusual mental powers and one of 
which will give him place in the history of our time. I wish 
to speak of him as a statesman and man of letters — high titles, 
indeed, but he deserved them both. 

First, then, as a man of letters. He was not a writer of 
books. A life given to war, to the law, and to politics left 
him no opportunity to enter upon a field where I am sure he 
might have won a distinction which he would have valued above 
all others. A lecture upon Hamlet, an address upon Madame 
Roland, a little volume upon the Law of Shakespeare, was all 
that he found time for in this direction. It is also true that he 
made no pretense to profound scholarship, to which, indeed, no 
man can lay claim unless he has devoted his life to its pursuit. 
Yet was he none the less a man of letters— was so by his wide 
reading, his cultivation, and his love of learning for its own 
sake. He had received a liberal education in the days when 
those words meant simply a classical education, and, what is far 
more uncommon, he had retained its teachings. I do not know 
whether he had kept up his Greek or not, but he never let go 
his Latin; and after leaving college he had taught himself 
French and Italian so that he read both with absolute ease and 
fluency — no small feat to be performed by a boy who went from 
the college to the camp and then fought his way up at the bar 
and in politics amid the sharp competition of a young and grow- 
ing State. I remember a summer afternoon, when the Senate 
was engaged in one of those contests where physical persistence 
counted more than intelligence, passing by his desk and seeing 
there two books lying open face down with which he had been 



42 Life and Character of Cuskman K. Davis. 

beguiling what, without impropriety, I may call the tedium of 
the occasion. I had the curiosity and took the liberty to look 
at the books in order to see what they were. One was an 
Italian work on international law; the other was Juvenal. As 
I put them down I wondered how many of the glib writers, or 
of the superior persons who in paragraph and speech utter the 
conventional sneer about the ignorance of American Senators 
and Congressmen, would wear away hot and weary hours by 
reading for instruction an Italian law book, and for pleasure 
the fierce and virile verses of the great Roman satirist. And be 
it remembered it was all done for love and not for show, for I 
never knew a man of equal attainments who paraded them less. 
He was widely read in the literature of France and Italy, and 
still more widely in the ample and subtle speech which was his 
own heritage. He read thoroughly, and had a memory of iron 
grasp. Again and again I have been astonished at his sudden 
and apt quotations from writers little read and seldom quoted. 
Like all men of broad cultivation, he had particular fields 
and special subjects in which he was peculiarly interested and 
upon which he was more deeply read than elsewhere. One of 
these was history, and more especially the period of the French 
revolution — Napoleon and the Napoleonic wars. He had made 
a very complete collection of books relating to Napoleon, and 
everything he bought he read. On this subject he was an 
authority and an expert, not for any particular purpose, but 
because the man and the time fascinated him and from sheer 
love of historical research. He delighted, as all men of 
thought and imagination must delight, in the great pageant of 
human history, but in the sensual pleasure of the music and 
the banners and the glittering arms he never forgot to ask 
whither the columns were marching and what their movements 
meant. 



Address of Mr. Lodge, of Massachusetts. 43 

His other specialty was Shakespeare. He studied and loved 
him, knew him through and through, and drew from him that 
intense delight which comes to all lovers of the greatest genius 
which has appeared among men. A little instance will show at 
once his knowledge and his devotion to the mighty poet. Sen- 
ator Davis once defended a judge in au impeachment case. The 
point involved was the power of the court to punish for contempt, 
and Davis cited in support of his position the splendid lines in 
Henry IV, where the chief justice defends his action in punish- 
ing the Prince of Wales for contempt of the judicial office and 
authority. He said the quotation produced a great effect, as 
well it might. Senator Davis also wrote, as I have said, a little 
book, called the Law of Shakespeare, a very learned and inter- 
esting study, which never gained the notice and reputation it 
merited, because it was printed and bound like a law book, when 
it was really literary and historical. 

But that which more than all else makes me speak of Senator 
Davis as a man of letters is that he loved literature for its own 
sake. A man may be well informed in many ways; he may 
have read many books and on his own subjects be learned, and 
yet he may have no literature, to borrow Dr. Johnson's phrase. 
Books are not necessarily literature any more than the applica- 
tion of paint and colors is necessarily the work of an artist. 
Painting a fence and painting the Sistine Chapel are both 
painting, but one is useful, everyday trade, and the other is a 
great art, the work of a towering genius. A census report is 
a book, and it is valuable, but it is not literature. In its 
highest expression literature is the greatest art of which the 
human race has shown itself capable. As Mr. Barrett Wendell 
so well puts it, "It is the lasting expression in words of the 
meaning of life." It must combine thought, wit, humor, 
fancy — all that can appeal to the heart, the senses, and the 



44 Life and Character of Cushman K. Davis. 

imagination — and it must go forth clothed in all the beauties 
which style and form can give it. It must exist for its own 
sake and be its own all-sufficient excuse for being. This was 
the literature which Senator Davis knew and rejoiced in and 
admired. This was what he read so widely in all languages, 
and especially in his own. This was what he loved purely 
for its own sake. And from this it follows that what he read 
most was poetry — that which is supreme in literature. Iu 
poetry he loved most what was greatest and best, and so he 
came to find what was good in all and judge aright the whole 
scale. 

Despite the fact that he wrote little or nothing, I have'dwelt 
upon him as a student and a man of letters for several reasons. 
His tastes and acquirements in this direction show the quality 
of his mind; such knowledge and love of literature are enno- 
bling qualities worthy of remembrance, and such accomplish- 
ments in a distinguished public man are honorable to American 
public life. Senator Davis also illustrates the fact that although 
there are few, comparatively, who can rival him in extent of 
reading or breadth of cultivation, there are many, very many, 
men in the public service who share his love of learning and of 
literature, in which the}- find the same pleasure and instruction 
that he found in the hours stolen from the engrossing cares of 
a life of action. 

His generous learning and wide reading helped Senator Davis 
as a statesman, that other aspect of his life of which I wish to 
speak briefly. That he was a statesman in the best acceptance 
of that term can not be gainsaid. He dealt with large ques- 
tions in a large way. He looked before and after, not to sigh 
for what is not, but that he might deal successfully with the 
present and prepare wisely for the future. Like most men 
learned in the law, his tendencies were conservative, but he did 



Address of Mr. Lodge, of Massachusetts. 45 

not shrink from innovation, nor was he the slave of precedent. 
The past, which he had studied so faithfully, was to him a wise 
teacher, not an unbending tyrant. He was not oik- of those 
who hide dislike of the present and distrust of the future under 
the guise of loyalty to the past. Although a man of strong will 
and masterful temper, he was ever open to new ideas. Above 
all, he had the two attributes essential to the highest statesman- 
ship — sentiment and imagination. Without these gifts a man 
may be most successful, he may rise to the head of the state, he 
may do fine and enduring work, hut he will never meet the 
greatest questions in the greatest way; and he may encounter a 
situation in which, despite his powers, he will fail solely from 
this deficiency in two qualities which are not practical, but 
which are none the less essential. Sir Robert Walpole was one 
of England's greatest ministers. He was the man for the time; 
he did the work England needed; his splendid good sense, his 
stead}' courage, his knowledge of men, and his executive capac- 
ity can not be overpraised. Yet Walpole could never have 
climbed to the heights which the elder Pitt scaled so easily, for 
he lacked the fervid sentiment and the soaring imagination of 
his great successor. These qualities of sentiment and imagina- 
tion, combined with his learning, his long training at the bar, 
and his experience in public affairs, and supported as they were 
by an intellect which was singularly quick and resourceful, 
enabled Senator Davis to do his remarkable work of the last 
few years. When he came to the head of the Committee on 
Foreign Relations the country was just entering upon a new 
epoch; a period of change was beginning of which the end is 
still far distant. In the hurrying events which have crowded 
so fast upon us in the last four years Senator Davis played an 
important part. It is too soon to tell in detail or rightly to 
estimate what that part was in all the incidents which led to 



46 Life and Character of Cushman A". Davis. 

the Spanish war, in the making of peace, and in the solution of 
the problems which war and peace and our own strides toward 
economic supremac}^ have brought upon us. 

In all that he did in shaping our policy he was helped by 
his knowledge and his studies, by much careful thought, and 
by an imagination which enabled him to project his vision 
into the future. But that which was his surest guide was a 
sentiment embodied in a profound patriotism and an intense 
Americanism. I do not mean that he was peculiarly Ameri- 
can because he held certain opinions on certain public ques- 
tions, or that he was more patriotic than others who differed 
with him radically upon those same questions. What I mean 
is that he had a faith in his people and their destiny which 
nothing could shake, and that he never had a shadow of doubt 
or distrust as to their entire ability to meet any responsibility 
and any question bravely, justly, and victoriously. He had 
proved his patriotism, like many other brave men, on the 
field of battle, and he hardly ever referred to it. But his 
love of country and everything connected with its history 
was with him a passion. He took a deep satisfaction in his 
direct descent from one of the Plymouth Pilgrims, and he was 
prouder of the name of Robert Cushman signed to the com- 
pact of the Mayflower than if it had been inscribed among 
those of William's knights on the walls of Battle Abbey. His 
thoughts were always upon the great questions now before 
the United States, and in the last hours his country and her 
fortunes were uppermost in his mind as the shadows closed 
about him. He was not a man who cried his own virtues and 
proclaimed his own deeds in the market place, but he did 
his work — great work, as the time demanded — strongly and 
well. He will find his place and his reward in the pages of 
historv. when the story of these momentous vears is told. 



Address of Hit. Lodge, of Massachusetts. 47 

That monument is for other hands than ours to build. We can 
only bear imperfect witness to what he was to us who knew 
him, and then leave his memory to 

The silent melody of thought that sings 
A ceaseless requiem to the sainted dead. 



48 Life and Character of Cushman A". Davis. 



Address of Mr. Daniel, of Virginia. 

It is a privilege which I appreciate, sad indeed, Mr. President, 
but all the more in consonance with the feelings which I bring 
to this mournful hour, to pay my respects to the memory of 
our dead friend and colleague, Cushman Kellogg Davis, of 
Minnesota. 

He stood in the front rank of the lawyers and publicists of 
this country. He was an ornament of this body, as he was 
one of its most useful, able, and respected members. He was 
beloved here as he was beloved at home, and while the nation 
and the State alike deplore the loss of a noble and faithful pub- 
lic sen-ant, those who had the privilege of association with him 
in his daily tasks mourn for him as a delightful companion and 
as a trusted friend whom they will know no more on earth 
forever. 

The eminence which he had won was attained by the appli- 
cation of brilliant natural faculties to studious pursuits, and 
was the fitting reward of just and honorable labors. He was 
well equipped for public life. Before he came here he had 
been a legislator in his own State and had become its governor. 
He long practiced law in Minnesota, had achieved great success 
in his profession, and enjoyed a high reputation for learning, 
integrity, and sound judgment. As an advocate and as a coun- 
selor alike he had few equals. His mind was filled with techni- 
cal lore, but, as well, with the large and equitable spirit of that 
jurisprudence which is gathered from the wisdom of the world 
and is applied in the affairs of men in all nations. There was 
no case of legal controversy, whether in the nisi prius or the 
appellate courts, or in an international tribunal, in which he 



Address of Mr. Daniel, of Virginia. 49 

would not have been the peer of any antagonist who could 
possiblj have been arrayed against him. 

He was a lover and a student of literature as well as of the 
law. His mind had been enriched and ripened by his famil- 
iarity with its masters, and he was the profounder and ablei 
lawyer because of his accomplishments in letters. 

The subjects to which he addressed his attention in his 
career as a Senator here he studied to their depths, and when 
he -*;ioke upon them he was sure to develop them in their bear- 
ings with perspicuity, and to render a worthy and valuable 
contribution to their consideration. Erudite, analytical, log- 
ical, trenchant, always chivalrous, and often brilliant as he was, 
he never spoke without attracting deep, interested attention; 
and while he did not speak often, he always spoke with power, 
and frecpiently with rare and engaging eloquence. 

As an adviser on public matters he was patient, painstaking, 
wise, prudent, and considerate. His character possessed the 
elements which befit the statesman. He looked upon all sides 
of a question and weighed the "pros" and ''cons" with judi- 
cial discernment and discretion. While his mind worked 
quickly and with instinctive justice, he was too experienced 
and too wise to let loose mere impulsive apprehensions; and his 
conclusions on any subject were apt to be in consonance with 
the best possible, practicable attainment. 

He was never extreme and never erratic; he was always 
courteous and always independent and manly. He had a high 
and honorable sense of conviction and of responsibility, with 
a certain reserve that modestly emphasized rather than dimin- 
ished the dignity and weight of his opinions. The play of fine 
fancy sometimes fringed his serious discourses with phospho- 
rescent fire, but never an unseemly word or misplaced levity 
marred or belittled his utterances. 
S. Doc. 230 4 



50 Life and Character of Cuskman I\. Davis. 

A few years ago Mr. Davis delivered a short series of four 
lectures <m international law before the faculty and students of 
the University of Minnesota. They are couched in that clear 
and sententious language which few could use so well; and they 
sum up the leading questions of international law which have 
arisen in our national history. No better brief of them could be 
produced, and I know of no source which contains so much apt 
learning for the American student so compactly stated. 

His facility as an orator, his wisdom as a thinker, and his 
knowledge of affairs I once had agreeable opportunity to note at 
the Military Academy, West Point, when I had the honor to be 
associated with him as one of the Board of Visitors appointed by 
the President of the Senate. After we reached the Academy he 
was called on to make an address before the graduating class, 
with but few hours for preparation. To the "occasion sudden" 
he was fully equal. In that short time he wrote and delivered 
a polished and well-considered address which bore no mark of its 
hasty conning and which was filled witli the worthy reflections 
and the fine spirit which well became such an occasion. 

"Our gentle master," Shakespeare, had for him that mag- 
netic attraction which has brought the world to his feet and 
which he will ever possess without a peer for all spirits ' ' touched 
to fine issues." He calls him " the first of men;" and we may 
well say of Mr. Davis, as was said of Lord Chief Justice Camp- 
bell, that "he has the glory of placing a stone on the lofty cairn 
of our immortal bard," for he has written of him in a work 
which will lose nothing in comparison with that of the great 
English jurist and author on the same subject. Indeed, it is 
far more complete in illustration of the law in Shakespeare, and 
abounds in fine passages of historical and literary criticism. 

It was written as the work of winter evenings and as an 
incident to the studv of the works of him "who converted the 



Address of Mr. Daniel, of Virginia. 51 

elements which awaited his command into entertainments," and 
the members of that profession of which he was a shining light 
can not turn to its pages without feeling that he has made 
princely payment of the debt which, it has been said, every 
lawyer owes to his calling. 

Those who have amused themselves in reading the curious 
books of the iconoclasts, which make laborious effort to show- 
that Francis Bacon wrote the Shakespearian plays, as well as 
those who find in the master's work inherent evidence of his 
identity, will sympathize with Mr. Davis's sharp rebuke of 
their heresy where he says: 

And now comes some one and says that here is proof that Shakespeare 
is a mere alias for Francis Bacon. It is difficult to touch or let alone this 
vagary with any patience. 

One is inclined simply to protest in the words of Shakespeare's epitaph: 
" Good friend for Iesus sake forbeare 
To digg the dust enclosed heare," 
and pass on, deeming all secure against a desecration worse than that 
which the poet cursed. 

Respecting his good taste in the fitting application of the fine 

thoughts of others, which, indeed, he seldom needed, so ready 

were his own, I may use his own language in reference to 

another and say: 

These emblems of his industry are woven into his style like the bees into 
the imperial purple of Napoleon's coronation robes. 

1 low beautifully does he speak of the comparison between the 
first edition of Hamlet, in 1603, and the final revision of 1623, 
as showing how the hand of the master wrought upon his work. 

"It is," said he, "as if some sculptor with an enchanter's 
power had wrought upon an unadorned Milan cathedral in one 
night, so that the morning showed thousands of carvings and 
statues where the day before were only walls of unadorned 
simplicity." 

On the 2d of July, 1897, Mr. Davis delivered an address on 



52 Life and Character of Cushman K. Davis. 

the battlefield of Gettysburg, at the unveiling of the statue 
erected by the State of Minnesota in honor of the First Regi- 
■ ment of Minnesota Volunteers. 

It was the thirty-fourth anniversary of that mighty conflict 
in which the regiment from the State which our friend repre- 
sented had done a deed of splendid valor and paid the martyr's 
tribute, suffering more than any other command of either side 
in killed and wounded — more, indeed, than any command in 
any battle of the civil war. Two hundred and fifteen out of 
262 fell in that awful cataclysm. Yet, as he said, "Only 47 
were unhurt, but they stood in line, and not one man was miss- 
ing. ' ' Not one of all the brave battalions of the North and 
South that threw themselves against the walls of fire on that 
dreadful day won greater honor than the First Regiment of 
Minnesota; and I may say of him who then spoke for them 
that their orator spoke as nobly as they fought, and like a 
knightly champion of a reunited people. 

I wish, indeed, Mr. President, it were fitting for me to read 
all of that speech here. It is the rich, fragrant, mellow, sun- 
colored fruit of a tree deeply rooted in generous soil. It would 
better fill my brief time upon this floor than anything I could 
say. It was a message of peace and honor in the outstretched 
hand of true fraternity. It was the sage, the seer, the patriot, 
the honest man that spoke. No vainglorious outburst was there, 
and no condescension. But forbearance, toleration, modera- 
tion, self-restraint, patriotism — broad as the lines of the great 
Republic, warm as its firesides, vital in every part — honoring 
all men according to St. Paul's injunction. 

May I be permitted, Mr. President, to read a few passages 
from that noble utterance? Said he: 

Nearly 160,000 fronted each other here. Neither waged a war of foreign 
invasion. They were brothers deeply angered. But that brotherhood was 



Address of Mr. Daniel, of Virginia. 53 

ail assurance of fraternal reunion at some time when war should cease and 
the resistless forces of reconciliation should assert themselves, as the} 
have done, thanks be to Him who has guided and protected this nation 

Again, he said: 

Neither army was fighting for a monarchy, fir to establish one. Each 
was pouring out its blood for its own constitutional government — for the 
right of man to govern himself in a republic. This fact is ever to be 
remembered in considering the philosophy of that great war. The irritat- 
ing cause which produced it never for a moment seduced the men of either 
side from allegiance to the constitutional conception of their forefathers 
that governments exist only by the consent of the governed, and that this 
right can be most efficaciously established and preserved by an elective 
republic. 

And yet, again: 

And it was this transcendental fealty which so soon reunited us in one 
family by the combined efforts of men in whom hostility had been ap- 
peased, and closed that awful chasm which our evil-wishers abroad pre- 
dicted would always divide us by a fixed and impassable gulf. The same 
earthquake force which opened that abyss closed it again, and we stand 
now, here and everywhere, upon solid ground — holy ground here, because 
it is a tomb where the hosts of valor and patriotism have ' ' set up their 
everlasting rest." It is also a field of resurrection whence has arisen the 
Genius of a restored Union. 

He who thus spoke over the dust of his fallen comrades 
presents himself to my mind as the highest type of the Ameri- 
can citizen; and as we contemplate him there on the heights, 
where angered brethren imbued the field in each other's blood, 
and hear the sweet small voice of love rise from a whisper to a 
bugle call in his utterances, we seem — 

* * to see our flag unfurled, 

Our champion waiting in his place 
For the last battle of the world — 

The Armageddon of the race. 

Mr. President, he, too, has passed to the tabernacles of 
everlasting rest, followed by honest tears, which flow as 
did his own noble speech from the purest fountain of our 



54 Life and Character of Cushman K. Davis. 

being — -dews which rise upon the mountain top, descended from 
the heavens. 

Dead! While his voice was living yet 

In echoes round the pillared dome. 
Dead! While his blotted page lay wet 

With themes of state and love of home. 

" When I die," said little Nell, "put something near me that 
loved the light and had the sky above it always. " " Crown me 
with flowers," said Mirabeau in his last hour. 

Innocent childhood, mature manhood, and the world-weary 
old man go alike as equals to the tomb, and yet with the same 
ever rising yearning spirit. Gaudy monuments there seem a 
sacrilege. Fulsome praise is repellaut. The uppermost thought 
that comes to me as I say ' ' farewell ' ' to our dead friend is that 
throughout his service here, and in all his public life, he held 
all his countrymen in his heart, and spoke no word that leaves 
a thorn in any bosom. May I not lay this fact, as a flower that 
bloomed forth from his own being, upon his tomb? The virtue 
which he possessed and of which it is the token has had the sky 
above it always. 



Address of Mr. Spooner, of Wisconsin. 55 



ADDRESS OF MR. SPOONER, OF WISCONSIN. 

Mr. President: Painfully conscious that I can utter on this 
occasion no adequate tribute to the character and career of our 
departed colleague, I yet must speak here some earnest and 
tender words of my long-time friend. My memory of him 
carries me back to a time anterior to his removal from Wis- 
consin to Minnesota, when he was connected with the supreme 
court of Wisconsin, and availing himself of the great law 
library of that State in preparing for the practice of his chosen 
profession. I see him now as I saw him then, and I remember 
that he was considered one of the ablest, most brilliant, and 
promising young men in the State of Wisconsin. The judges 
of the court, all distinguished jurists, were especially fond of 
him, regarded him as singularly gifted and able, and confi- 
dently predicted for him a great career. 

In 1870, when I removed to the northern border of Wiscon- 
sin, less than 20 miles from his home, he had already achieved 
eminence in the profession and was accounted one of the 
leaders of a brilliant and learned bar. He had first won dis- 
tinction as a lawyer by the audacity, skill, and eloquence with 
which he had conducted the defense in a famous murder case, 
and, after the lapse of over thirty years, the ability and 
resourcefulness which upon that trial attracted the attention 
of Minnesota to his brilliancy and capacity is still a theme of 
conversation among the lawyers and laymen of that day. 

As a lawyer he was remarkably well grounded in legal 
principles. He had not only studied the science of the law, 
but he had explored and mastered the history of the law. 
There are lawyers who know more of decisions and what is 



56 Life and Character of Cushman K. Davis. 

called "case law," but there are not many who have more 
thoroughly mastered the science of the law or are more 
familiar with its fundamental principles and the philosophy 
and reasons underlying them. 

He possessed a rare faculty of generalization, and also of 
analysis, without the narrowness and tendency to technicality 
which sometimes characterize the analytical mind. 

He was not as a lawyer in any sense a specialist, and I do 
not remember a man who had greater professional versatility. 
There seemed to be no branch of the law in which he was not 
at home. It is quite impossible to say that he was stronger in 
one phase of the practice than in another. 

His arguments in the courts of last resort were luminous and 
weighty. In the examination and cross-examination of wit- 
nesses he was an artist, and in the argument of a cause to a 
jury he was powerful and persuasive. From the beginning of 
his career he was distinguished for a choice and abundant 
vocabulary, which was always subject to his command. 

I have heard from him arguments addressed to the court 
upon questions of law and to juries upon questions of fact 
which I thought then, and think now, could not be excelled 
by anyone for strength, learning, and eloquence. There was 
a quality in his voice, a charm in his manner, and a beauty in 
his diction which was peculiar to him. 

No man was ever more devoted to the interests intrusted to 
his care or more assiduous in the preparation necessary to the 
completest discharge of professional duty. 

He seemed to have been born with a passion for reading. 
In the early years, when his professional duties and burdens 
were most exacting and pressing, I doubt if there was a night 
when his library was accessible in which he did not, laying 
aside all thought of law and courts and clients, seek and find 



Address of Mr. Spooner, of Wisconsin. 57 

recreation and refreshment in some volume of the classics, or of 
history, or in the pages of Shakespeare, or in the poems of the 
Bible. He could say with Gibbon: 

My early aud invincible love of reading I * * * would not exch 

for the treasure of India. 

Never since I first knew him would he willingly exchange 
an hour with his books in the quiet of his library for any 
social function or assembly. 

He read with great discrimination and with fine apprecia- 
tion of the literary quality of the author aud of his thought, 
however subtle. And he read to good purpose, for his capa- 
cious and retentive memory was an inexhaustible storehouse, 
in which there was no rubbish and from which at his will 
came jewels of rare beauty to enrich his speech at the bar. 
in the Senate, on the hustings, and in the daily intercourse 
with his fellows. 

He had rare felicity in the use of language. Every word 
he used fitted in its place, and was chosen to give precise 
expression to the thought which he intended to convey. 
This seemed in him a gift. It characterized him in his early 
life, and I doubt if he ever uttered even a short speech in 
which there was not some sentence which challenged admi- 
ration for its perfection and fastened itself in the memory 
of the listener as a model. This was as true of his unpre- 
meditated utterances as it was of those which were carefully 
prepared. While his style was classic and never common- 
place, there was an utter absence of apparent word stud}'. 

While his well-earned fame at the bar for learning, ability, 
and eloquence was established, it was circumscribed, and the 
larger fame which he won and which will live iu the history 
of the nation was achieved in the domain of statesmanship 
after he took his seat in this body. Few men ever came 



58 Life and Character of Cushman K. Davis. 

here with better natural endowment and preliminary training 
for the distinguished discharge of the high duties pertaining 
to this place than did he. 

He never seemed to me in the Senate quite the man in 
physical strength and health he was when I had known him 
at the bar. His voice had lost something of the ringing and 
resonant quality which had impressed me in earlier years, 
and he seemed less aggressive and less inclined to contest 
and to speech. He came to prefer the study of great ques- 
tions in the line of his inclination and special duty, and to 
speak only when it seemed absolutely necessary. He was a 
great constitutional lawyer, and he made of himself here 
a great international lawyer. I have not known one in pub- 
lic life who knew more accurately, in general and in detail, 
the great transactions of this Government, from the begin- 
ning, in its international relations. He was content, having 
expressed fully his views and the reasoning by which he 
reached his conclusions upon a measure of which he was in 
charge, or in support of a policy which he proposed, to leave 
it without further special advocacy to the arbitrament of the 
Senate. 

He made some great speeches in this body worthy of any 
period in its history, which will stand for accuracy, wealth 
of learning, beaut}- of diction, and strength of argumentation 
as models. Some of the best speeches I ever heard him deliver 
were upon topics involving our foreign relations, which, though 
of remarkable beauty of expression, evidencing complete mas- 
tery of the subject, listened to by a full Senate with rapt 
attention, are lost to the world because in the public interest 
they were spoken in the secrecy of executive session. I recall 
several such which would have added to his fame, and which 
it is a pit}* were not preserved. 



Address of Mr. Spooner, of Wisconsin. 59 

His was a daring mind. He had no time for inconsequen- 
tial thought. Mentally "he walked the mountian ranges." 
No problem in the domain of international law or diplomacy 
was too complicated or monumental for his mental grasp. 
There was about him nothing of mental or moral timidity. 
He shrank from no responsibility; no specter or phantom dan- 
ger had terror for him. Once convinced of the true course, he 
would guide the craft whose rudder was in his hands through 
any sea with unshaken nerves and will as firm as adamant. 

His Americanism was intense, and his faith in the gran- 
deur of our national future was absolute and implicit. He 
was not unmindful of perils, but he was undaunted by them. 
An idealist, he was also an eminently practical statesman. 
A lover of liberty and constitutional government, he realized 
that each is a development, and that "in the corrupted cur- 
rents of this world ' ' it can sometimes, alas, only be attained 
through training and struggle and sacrifice, and too often 
only through the shedding of blood. 

Inexorable in maintaining the rights of his country and 
safeguarding its interests, he was scrupulous in insisting upon 
that courtesy and justice in the conduct of our foreign rela- 
tions which are as essential to peace and good will between 
governments as they are among men. He knew that among 
nations, as among men, calmness and dignity of action best 
befit strength and power, and he was insistent upon the 
punctilious observance by his own Government in all cases 
of the etiquette usual in international intercourse, and in 
this more than once, in my judgment, he served the country 
better than its people know. 

This man, sometimes imperious in his intercourse with 
equals, was always considerate, even tender, with the lowly 
and the humble. 



60 Life and Charade)' of Cushman K. Davis. 

He had unfaultering faith in the stability of this Govern- 
ment. It was based upon an unfaltering faith in the people. 

He was a sincere friend of labor, but he insisted always 
upon the observance, by even - class, of those laws and prin- 
ciples which are essential to the preservation of public secur- 
ity and good government. 

I shall not forget, as the funeral cortege proceeded, on a 
bleak and wintry day, from .the home which he loved to the 
grave in which he rests, how, as it passed the works of a great 
corporation, the men who toil there, quitting the furnace, the 
forge, and the bench, stood in line, with bowed, bared heads, 
with sorrow in each face, a touching tribute to the dead states- 
man who, they knew, had been in life their true and thoughtful 
friend. 

He was loyal to the point of devotion in his friendships, and 
just and tolerant to every fair foe. 

I noted in him many years ago, when brought for a time into 
contact with him in the city of his home, his love for children 
and their love for him. He answered a remark by me once 
upon the subject with this quotation: 

Better to be driven out from among men than to be disliked by children. 

He was a politician, Mr. President, in the lofty sense, in the 
honorable sense, in that sense which is requisite to the best 
statesmanship. He despised political intrigue and backbiting. 

He was a religious man in his convictions. I know from 
conversation with him long ago that he had had, as many of us 
have had, more or less of skepticism. It long ago disappeared, 
and I was not surprised, but confirmed, in my understanding of 
his attitude by reading recently this utterance of his upon the 
subject to Rev. Dr. Samuel G. Smith, of St. Paul, his friend: 

It is a great deal better to have these things discussed by the friends of 
the church rather than by her enemies, but it is not new — Voltaire had 



Address of Mr. Spooner, of Wisconsin. 61 

much tn say on the subject. The heart of the question is not in any di 
about the history of the books of the Bible. I am very familiar with the 
Bible. Job is the noblest poem ever written, and there is much of the 
loftiest eloquence in the Prophets. Nor is it in the literature of the Bible 
that the problem of faith rests. I know human history, and 1 know that 
in the first century something happened that destroyed the old world and 
gave birth to the new. The resurrection of Jesus would account for that 
change, and I do not know of any other adequate solution that has ever 
been proposed. 

I read this as evidence of his faith, and as an example of that 
generalization, broad and strong,' which was characteristic of 
him. 

He loved the duties of the Senate, and he delighted in the 
companionship of the Senate. After he was stricken with the 
illness from which he died, and a few days before the election, 
I called upon him. He had suffered intensely, and his nerves 
were shaken. As I bade him good-bye I sought to cheer him, 
and prophesied his certain presence at the opening of the ses- 
sion of the Senate. In a low voice he said to me, " It is a great 
body, a great body; good-bye." To me these were his last 
words. 

It is said that in the delirium which preceded his release 
from pain and his entering into rest he constantly talked of the 
Senate and of the great affairs here, which were in a measure 
committed to his charge, and expressed a wish to live a few- 
years longer, that he might help to work out some of the half- 
solved problems which press upon us, and to which he had given 
anxious and laborious thought. It was not to be. 

We have missed him; we will miss him; aud those of us who 
served with him here will remember him with admiration for 
his learning and his genius, and with affection for his kindli- 
ness and the charm of his comradeship. Truly, Mr. President, 
he was a man of "great and shining parts" — student, soldier, 
lawyer, orator, scholar, statesman — in each of these excelling. 



62 Life and Character of Cushman K. Davis. 

Happily, Mr. President, no man is indispensable to any State 
or country. Minnesota, who loved and honored him and who 
was by him loved and honored in return, will be represented in 
this Chamber by strong, able, patriotic, and eloquent men; but, 
depreciating no one, it will not be strange if she shall not be 
able, taking him all in all, to send here another Cushman K. 
Davis. 



Address of Mr. Pettigrew, of South Dakota. 



Address of Mr. Pettigrew, of south Dakota. 

Mr. President: Senator Davis belonged to the Northwest, 
though claimed by the State which honored itself in honoring 
him. We of the Northwest looked to him as a leader devoted to 
its interests and fully comprehending and sympathizing with its 
wants. In a larger sense he belonged to the nation as one of the 
nation's distinguished servants. 

Yet he was distinctively a product of the newer portion of i iur 
realm, emerging from childhood, through the intervening years 
of youth, into the maturity of manhood surrounded by those 
progressive people who subdued a wilderness and impressed the 
vigor of their constructive capabilities upon expanding minds. 

Born in Henderson, in the State of New York, on the 16th of 
June, 1838, Mr. Davis was taken by his parents from his native 
State to the Territory of Wisconsin when but a few mouths old , 
and there his family enrolled themselves among the pioneers who 
created a State that has already furnished the country with many 
noble examples of patriotic ability. 

During that period in life when the mind receives its lasting 
impressions Mr. Davis imbibed the rudiments of that knowledge 
which in its fullness made him a masterful leader among men. 
His adopted State was at that time the abode of an unusual pro- 
portion of rising representatives of statecraft, endowed with 
conspicuous mental capacity. Growing to manhood in the midst 
of influences thrown off from the discussions of men of strong 
intellectuality, during the formative years of a new Common- 
wealth, Mr. Davis's receptive mentality absorbed the teaching 
of the conspicuous men of the times, and these furnished the f< mn - 
dation for that broader knowledge, acquired through a habit of 



64 Life and Character of Ciishntan K. Davis. 

industrious research, which formed, in the maturity of his years, 
the eminent scholar and profound statesman to whose memory we 
are to-day bestowing the affectionate tribute of sincere words. 

Senator DAVIS'S education was begun in the common schools 
of the young State of Wisconsin, and from these he passed to a 
local college in Waukesha, his home town. From this college he 
entered the University of Michigan, graduating therefrom in 1857. 

Fresh from the honors of university life, he became a student 
in the law office of Alexander Randall, afterwards governor of 
the State. A few years of studious application to legal research 
fitted Mr. Davis for the profession of a lawyer, and he opened 
an office and entered upon the career that made him conspicuous 
among the leading men of the nation. 

When the storm of the civil war broke upon the country Mr. 
Davis abandoned the avocations of peace and became one of that 
vast army which the North sent forth to grapple in titanic strug- 
gle with their brethren of the South. Broken in health, he was 
compelled to abandon military life in 1S64, retiring from the Army 
as a lieutenant in the Twenty-eighth Wisconsin Infantry. 

After abandoning the profession of arms Mr. Davis resumed 
the practice of law at St. Paul, Minn., which city remained his 
home up to the time of his lamented death. In the succeeding 
years he filled many public positions of responsibility, being a 
State legislator, United States district attorney, governor of his 
State, and finally his constituency elevated him to a seat in this 
body, and twice affirmed their confidence in his representative 
ability. During thirteen important years in our history Senator 
Davis honored this Chamber with his presence, and so strongly 
had he endeared himself to his associates that when he was sum- 
moned hence to enter another life he left within the scene of his 
national successes a profound sense of irreparable loss. 

During the sixty-two years which marked the span of his 



Address of Mr. Pettigrew, of South Dakota. 65 

useful career the gravest national questions have arisen and the 
most serious perils have beset the life of the Republic. Since 
reaching man's estate Mr. Davis has been an active factor in 
the solution of these public problems, either upon the field of 
war's strife or in the peaceful councils of the people. Death 
found him in the midst of the crowning- achievements of his 
public life, and that he was loath to go and leave his work 
unfinished is attested by those who ministered to his sufferings 
and watched in sorow while the soul separated itself from the 
tenement we had loved and honored as the personification of rare 
mental gifts and true worth in man. 

I am a mourner at the shrine of a friendship that has existed 
during many years and reaches beyond the barrier of death. 
Having known Mr. Davis intimately in the public and private 
walks of life — in the forum, in the home and social circle, and 
in the seclusion of confidential intimacy — I bear testimony to 
the greatness of his mind and the goodness of his heart, to his 
unswerving integrity, to his fidelity to principle, to the presence 
of mental endowments that elevated him to a conspicuous 
position among the statesmen and philosophers of our advanced 
era. Sincerely do I hope that the example of his public and 
private life may remain among and with us as we bear the 
burdens of earthly pilgrimage and sanctify the hour when we 
stand again in the presence of the departed. 
S. Doc. 230 5 



66 Life and Character of Cushman K Davis. 

ADDRESS OF MR. MCCUMBER, OF NORTH DAKOT.. 

Mr. President: While those qualities which make the sol- 
dier or the patriot, the scholar or the statesman, instinctively 
command our admiration and honor, they are not always the 
ones which most deeply impress or enshrine a noble character 
in the affections of his associates or engender the deepest 
reverence and esteem. 

These great qualities of soul and brain manifested in the life 
of Cushman Kellogg Davis were happily combined with the 
gentle and tender impulses of a sympathetic heart to an extent 
seldom equaled in any one individual — the elements of a sage 
counselor and a generous friend. 

While I have watched with pride and honor the public career 
of this star of my native State whose lustrous character shone 
over all this great nation, my close personal acquaintance has 
been limited to a few years only. That short period, however, 
has been sufficient to know the man, for the character of every 
individual is like a divinely builded palace, whose majestic 
proportions and harmonious form, reflecting the beauty and 
sublimity of the soul of the architect, may be comprehended in 
a single glance; or like the finished work of some grand artist, 
which, while it reflects upon the canvas lofty ideals which 
speak like angels of sympathy to the souls of men, yet shows 
the labored touch of every stroke of the magic brush. 

So was the real life of Senator Davis known to all who had 
the honor of his acquaintance, the privilege of his personal 
friendship, the more delicate details ever traceable in the 
grander structure of the whole. 

Though firm and strong, his firmness was so blended with 
gentleness that, while his whole character stood out grand and 



Address of Mr. McCumber, of North Dakota. 67 

imposing, it was softened like some great mountain peak half 
veiled in morning mists. 

His generosity was not of the latent quality which required 
an exciting stimulus to develop its activity, but was ever alert 
and active, and responded as naturally and as surely as the mag- 
net to the pole. In his kindness and gentleness you felt the 
glow and fire of sincerity, which inspired absolute confidence. 

With a patriotism unbounded, his youthful vigor and man- 
hood's prime, the best of his life and thought, were dedicated 
to his country's good. That same devotion to nation mani- 
fested in his enlistment and sen-ice through the civil war was 
characteristic of his whole life. 

The associates of Senator Davis in the last session of Con- 
gress know how unremittingly were his labors in the verv face 
of the enemy of life. The advent of an insidious disease to 
which his physical health was rapidly yielding and which was 
soon to claim him for its own seemed rather to intensify than 
diminish his zeal. One thought with him was supreme — his 
country needed his service. 

The words of the poet might well have been dedicated to him: 

Oh, think how to his latest day, 

When death just hovering claimed his prev. 

With Palinure's unaltered mood, 

Firm at his dangerous post he stood. 

Each call for needful rest repelled, 

With dying hand the rudder held. 

But his love of country was not a blind devotion. He 
admired the true, generous, and brave in all countries, and 
held his own as rigidly to his ideal of national honor and dut\ 
as he did the highest or lowest nation of the world. 

His great success in the field of politics was not the result of 
that tact, skill, and diplomacy, by so man) - understood to be- 
an essential to successful political advancement. 



68 Life and Character of Cushman K. Davis. 

His tact was the ardor of his convictions of right and 
unswerving loyalty to those convictions ; his diplomacy the 
directness and simplicity of his utterances ; his skill was his 
scholarly attainments and thorough knowledge of all the great 
political questions of the day. 

As a jurist he ever interpreted law by the standard of 
justice — the soul which should permeate every human code — 
and never deflected that standard except toward the side of 
mercy. His arguments, like his character, were seldom 
aggressive, but ever clear and persuasive. 

As a young man he gave his youthful vigor and strength of 
manhood in war that no star should be lost to the firmament 
of American nationality. In his later years he gave that 
counsel to his country which broadened its national horizon 
and raised it to a higher, broader, and nobler position among 
the powers of the world. 

The tribute of Sir Walter Scott to Fox, in his last resting 
place, most fittingly portrays the noble nature of Cushman 
Kellogg Davis and his country's loss in this era of great 
national changes : 

For talents mourn, untimely lost, 
When best emploj'ed, and wanted most ; 
Mourn genius high, and lore profound, 
And wit that loved to play, not wound ; 
And all the reasoning powers divine, 
To penetrate, resolve, combine; 
And feelings keen, and fancy's glow — 
They sleep with him who sleeps below. 



Address of Mr. Foster, of Washington. 69 



Address of Mr. Foster, of Washington. 

Mr. President: Senator Davis was my near neighbor for 
twenty-five years, and, while it is impossible for me to add to 
the eloquent and just tributes already spoken in his memory, 
I feel constrained to contribute a few neighborly remarks bear- 
ing witness to his many sterling attributes of mind and heart. 

Over a quarter of a century ago, when I first met him, he was 
a rising and ambitious young lawyer, who was attracting friends 
as well as attention. That he was a confiding and tenacious 
friend those who know him best gladly testify; but of all his 
notable qualities his strict integrity first challenged my 
admiration. 

His briefs were perfect, and his thoroughness as a lawyer was, 
in my humble opinion, the substantial foundation of his success 
at the bar. His intellect was ever clear and vigorous. He had 
the power to grasp great intellectual problems, and his prophetic 
solution of delicate and grave international questions in his 
riper years stirred the pride of his former neighbors, who pre- 
dicted a brilliant career for him when he was yet burning the 
midnight lamp during and before his achievements as United 
States district attorney of Minnesota, nearly thirty years ago. 

And yet Senator Davis did not reach the pinnacle of his 
power by sudden nights, but rather by steady, persistent plod- 
ding and continued application. Day by day, year by year, his 
abilities and knowledge increased until he developed into a 
great lawyer — a foremost statesman. He was a notable advo- 
cate of the rights of good citizenship and early gained and held 
the confidence of a large circle of friends. This priceless confi- 
dence of his friends continued to the end, consoling him on his 
bed of sickness and spreading flowers on his tomb. 



70 Life and Character of Cushman K. Davis. 

While this worthy son of a great Commonwealth was a 
profound scholar, he was a most affable and genial companion 
and neighbor. In his infrequent moments of leisure his genial 
spirit and generous hospitality warmed the hearts of his friends 
and had the pleasing effect of placing the most humble and 
timid on a level of most charming equality. His friendships 
were so strong that the severest tests and rudest shocks could 
not break them. Only the settled conviction that a flagrantly 
unworthy act had been committed caused him to withdraw the 
abiding confidence reposed by him in his friends. 

His library was stored with choice volumes, and the young 
men who have had the opportunity of enjoying and profiting 
by his varied knowledge of men and affairs may well count 
themselves fortunate. Those partaking of the feast of reason 
spread by him for his friends will ever remember his remarkable 
familiarity with the thoughts and writings of men of profound 
learning of all ages, as well as his interesting conceptions of 
the teachings of nature. At one time, during an interesting 
discussion, he would make use of a plain illustration of the com- 
nii hi people, next a simile evolved from his own extended 
experience, and then a classical surprise, pertinent and ever 
pleasing. His reasoning was clear and concise, his position 
absolute and definite. Gradually interest in his literary attain- 
ments and legal ability spread beyond the middle West and 
throughout the country in general, until he was known every- 
where for his bright intellect, his patriotism, and conscientious 
performance of public duty. 

He was considerate of every man's opinion, and, as a friend 
and lawyer, this made him an agreeable associate. He was 
tenacious and unyielding, after reaching conclusions, and in 
many notable instances time has demonstrated the correctness 
of his opinions and the soundness of his mature judgment. 



Address of Mr. Foster, of Washington. 71 

With Senator Davis convictions were sacred, and that he had 
the courage of his convictions his public acts and deeds amply 
testify. In expressing his convictions he was fearless, forcible, 
and courageous. 

The fidelity with which Senator Davis discharged his public 
duties is the subject of frequent and earnest commendation 
among his admirers, but as a former neighbor I deem it an 
honor to bear witness to his attention to small things. In the 
little courtesies of life he was thoughtful and considerate. He 
displayed a disposition to help and perform those slight acts of 
kindness that cement and firmly hold our friendships. When 
news reached him, for instance, of an old friend living in a far 
distant part of the country having been chosen to a seat in this 
Chamber, he found time, although burdened with grave respon- 
sibilities of far-reaching importance, to write full particulars 
touching upon the duties of a newly elected Senator. 

His career has been ended abruptly, at a time when his 
splendid talents were most keenly appreciated and could least 
lie spared. That his death should occur at this particular time 
is, indeed, peculiarly sad. 

As an eminent authority on constitutional and international 
law and diplomacy, his services to his country were of inesti- 
mable value during the uncertain and eventful days before and 
during the late war with Spain, and as these last services to his 
country are yet fresh in the minds of a grateful people, the 
generous appreciation now manifested adds to the crowning 
patriotic achievements of his public life. 



72 Life and Character of Cushman K. Davis. 



ADDRESS OF MR. TOWNE, OF MINNESOTA. 

Mr. President : The language of eulogy has many times 
awakened the echoes of these august walls. Often in this place 
have affection, gratitude, and admiration paid their unstinted 
tribute to great talents, exalted character, valiant deeds, and 
useful service. Here whatever is high in purpose or excellent 
in performance has again and again been celebrated by all that 
is noble in thought and eloquent in speech. 

To-day, with whatsoever humbleness a voice may raise itself 
to mingle with these mighty memories, there is that in the 
subject of this observance which vindicates propriety by trans- 
forming presumption into duty. His countrymen at large had 
hardly reached a just appreciation of the native genius and the 
vast and varied acquirements of Cushman Kellogg Davis 
when envious death obscured the light whose radiance had but 
begun to shine in its peculiar sphere and with its own original 
luster. The people of his Commonwealth, among whom he 
lived his simple, unostentatious, busy life in a familiar associa- 
tion of more than thirty years, had come to know him well. 

His name is a household word throughout the State of 
Minnesota. His varied endowments, his wide and accurate 
scholarship, his versatile capacity, were common knowledge, 
and when he was called, as his fellow-citizens knew he some 
time must be, to a large opportunity upon the theater of the 
national history they looked confidently forward to a career 
that should leave all his countrymen as well assured as they 
themselves already were of his right to a place in the pantheon 
of American greatness. 



Address of Mr. Towne, of Minnesota. 73 

In everyday life Mr. Davis was democratic and unconven- 
tional, genial and approachable, though never without that 
unobtrusive suggestion of dignity which almost seems to be the 
peculiar property of the true American gentleman. His sim- 
plicity was as unaffected as his self-respect was unmistakable. 
He had withal a lively sense of humor which, playing above an 
illimitable expanse of miscellaneous information, lighted up his 
conversation like sunshine upon a diversified landscape. 

At the bar he early attained to eminence. Always a student 
in whatever interested him, he had an extensive acquaintance 
with the literature of jurisprudence, although the structure of 
his mind inclined him toward the exposition of principles rather 
than the mere aggregation of cases. His arguments to courts 
were models of legal reasoning and logical method; while in 
addresses to juries his intimate knowledge of human nature, his 
faculty of illustration, and his felicity of speech made him an 
opponent to be dreaded. As a trial lawyer he excelled in the 
arrangement of the order of his proofs, in his command of the 
rules of evidence, and in the art of examining witnesses, ex- 
hibiting with other merits in this last department that rare dis- 
cretion which knows how to resist allurements toward excessive 
cross-examination. 

Senator Davis was a conspicuous example of the scholar in 
politics. His reading, both in history and in general literature, 
was comprehensive and minute; but in this respect, as in 
others, he followed the instinct of his own taste and preference 
rather than any hard and fast programme of study. His library 
was his most congenial habitat. Thither with unerring cer- 
taiutv he might be traced in the intervals of professional 
engagements or public business. His books had gathered about 
him in answer to the call of his mind for companionship and 
counsel. He bought no volumes by job lot to fill shelf room 



74 Life and Character of Cushman K. Davis. 

and make a brave appearance. He knew each one of them like 
a friend. He handled them lovingly. He felt at home among 
them. Could they be marshaled in the order in which they 
came to him, their character and sequence would be at once an 
index to his many-sided capacities and a history of his growth. 
His earl}' love for the classics abided with him from his 
college days to the last. Ovid, and Livy, and Horace, and 
Virgil were customary relaxations; and I recall an occasion 
when, in selecting the contents of his valise for a journey, 
even a box of his favorite brand of cigars was compelled to 
give place to a copy of Sallust and a volume of Pliny's letters. 
On his return from Paris two years ago he brought with him, 
as a trophy prized scarcely less than the famous treaty itself, 
a French edition of the entire extant L,atin literature. Many 
Senators will, no doubt, remember his remarkably happy and 
read} - rendering of a passage in one of Juvenal's satires which 
he made impromptu during the Hawaiian debate in the Fifty- 
third Congress. Having quoted as follows: 

Sed quo cecidit sub crimine; quisnam 
Delator? quibus judiciis; quo teste probavit? 
Nil linrum; verbosa et grandis epistola venit 
A Capreis. Bene habet; mil plus interrogo. 

He thus proceeded: 

My friend from Massachusetts [Mr. Hoar] requests me to translate that. 
He does not need it, of course. But another Senator [Mr. Washburn] 
suggests that some of the rest of us do. I will not attempt to give a literal 
translation, but I will give an accurate paraphrase, which will show its 
application: "Into what crime has he fallen? By what informer has he 
been accused? What judge has passed upon him? What witness has 
testified against him? Not one or any of these. A verbose and turgid 
message has come over from Capri. That settles it. I will interrogate no 
further." 

Those who have not forgotten the circumstances under 
which this speech was made will understand that this passage 



Address of Mr. Toitme, of Minnesota. 75 

is a good witness to much more than a familiarity with a 
latin classic. 

With all his various and wide excursions in the domain of 
general literature, there were some spots he specially loved 
to visit, a few nooks he made almost his own. A boyhood 
enthusiasm for Napoleon stimulated an interest in that won- 
derful man and all that concerned him, and led to the col- 
lection of many rare portraits of the great Corsican ami of 
several hundred volumes dealing with his life and times. 

It is probable that no other private library in this country 
can show so large a Napoleonic bibliography as that left by 
Senator Davis; and I question whether any living American 
other than Professor Sloane has at his instant command such a 
rich fund of accurate information concerning the first Emperor 
of the French as that which so often charmed and astonished 
the friends who were fortunate enough to be in the Senator's 
company when this absorbing topic was introduced and his 
mood was fertile. 

It is doubtful whether Mr. Davis found in any other author 
quite so keen a delight as in Shakespeare. Himself gifted with 
a yivid, yet sane imagination, exquisitely sensitive to the music 
and rhythm of perfect verse, prone to comprehensive general- 
ization, and profoundly studious of the psychology of human 
character, the atmosphere of the incomparable poet-dramatist 
was most congenial to him. In his early manhood the study of 
Shakespeare was. as he has told us in a published essay, habit- 
ual. This study was not only con amore; it was critical, com- 
parative, and exhaustive. Its results in one department of 
criticism he made known in a volume called The Law in Shake- 
speare, which remains, I believe, the best and most thorough 
exposition of this branch of Shakespearean learning. One pas- 
sage from the "introduction" of this volume I will quote as 



76 Life and Character of Cushman K. Davis. 

an example of Senator Davis's literary style and of his method 
of thought: 

There was everything in that romantic age to stir the imagination. 
There was a spirit of chivalry abroad which marched in quest of some- 
tiling more substantial than moldy relics and fulfilled vows sworn to 
something grander than the achievement of pious absurdities. Frobisher 
had sailed northward into the silence of the eternal seas of ice. El Dorado 
lifted against the western skies its shafts and domes of gold. The Armada 
had vanished like a portentous phantom, smitten by the valor of English- 
men, and chased far off into the Hebridean fogs bv the waves of the 
exasperated sea, which fought for its island nursling. Hawkins, pirate 
and admiral, had thrown his fortune into the pit which threatened to 
swallow up his country, and had died under the displeasure of his stingy 
yet magnificent queen. Raleigh, having seen his dreams of the New 
World die out, lay in the Tower writing his history, doubtless smoking 
tne consoling weed while awaiting the end of so much bravery, so much 
rashness, and so many cares, in the summons of "eloquent, just, and 
mighty Death." 

1 Ir.ike had spoiled the seas and the cities thereof. Captain John Smith 
had told of great empires in the West and their swarthy emperors. Marv, 
Queen of Scots, that changeful enchantress, as we see her now — at one 
time the French lily, all sweet, and pure, and fragrant, and again the 
Scottish thistle, spinous and cruel to all who touched her — had woven 
the cords of love into the chains of empire, and had pressed the cup of 
her sorceries to the lips of main- men, until her own glorious head bowed 
to " the long divorce of steel." 

Little argument is needed to show that the author of this 
paragraph might have entered upon almost any department of 
literature, whether creative, critical, or historical, with abso- 
lute assurance of distinction. 

Senator Davis's facility in modern languages was very unus- 
ual for an American public man. He had for literary purposes 
a practical mastery of French, a knowledge of Italian only 
slightly less, and a very serviceable use of Spanish. One of 
the most valued sets of books in his collection was a complete 
and uniform edition of the Italian poets, through which in 
leisure hours he wandered, ever with senses alive to each pecul- 
iar beauty, from Dante and Petrarch to Leopardi. Contrary to 



Address of Mr, Towne, of Minnesota. 77 

the general impression, even among his friends, he knew and 
read the German language: but his admiration for its literature 
was confined to its poetry, chiefly the folk-songs, Heine, and 
the lyrics of Schiller. 

One of the favorite subjects of his youthful investigation was 
destined to afford Mr. Davis his chief avenue of distinction in 
public life. I think it probably true that no contemporary 
statesman excelled him in acquaintance with the literature of 
international law, or in the ability to state its principles aud to 
argue their application. All the elementry works on the sub- 
ject in English. French, and Italian were familiar to him, and 
he was profoundly versed in diplomatic precedents and history. 
His conceded preeminence as an international lawyer in this 
body, where several of his colleagues were justly ranked high 
in the same branch of learning, is the strongest certificate to 
his abilities and attainments. These qualifications were recog- 
nized early in his Senatorial service, and it is well known that 
many successive Secretaries of State availed themselves of his 
great store of knowledge, always courteously at their com- 
mand. 

He himself has told me of one occasion whereon Secretary 
Blaine, by producing at a Cabinet meeting the particulars of a 
certain diplomatic precedent upon which Mr. Davis had hap- 
pened while reading a French authority, was able at a critical 
moment to secure the adoption of a procedure that, in all 
probability, avoided the extremity of war with a South Ameri- 
can State. The reports which, as member and as chairman of 
the Committee on Foreign Relations, he has submitted to the 
Senate during the last ten years form a very valuable literature 
on many important topics in international law. 

Only those in the very highest places of responsibility can 
testify how intimate and constant a reliance had been placed 



78 Life and Character of Cushman A'. Davis. 

on .Senator Davis from the first mutterings premonitory of the 
Spanish-American war down to almost the very day of his 
death. Credible report has attributed to him the greater part 
of that masterly polemic in diplomacy whereby our peace com- 
missioners at Paris, in a long series of interchanged notes with 
some of the ablest and astutest international lawyers in Europe, 
achieved a result which, even by those of us who do not ap- 
prove the policy, must be admitted to constitute a signal 
triumph of dialectic skill. 

Death found Cushman K. Davis at the zenith of his powers 
and at the summit of his opportunities. He stood at the head 
of the committee which at the present critical juncture in our 
history is the most prominent committee of the highest gov- 
ernmental body in the world. If the policy on which his party 
has entered is to be pursued, the unexpired portion of his cur- 
rent term, comprising the next four years, must be all-impor- 
tant in the shaping and adjustment of that policy as related to 
numerous and complicated international interests. This was 
a situation calculated to appeal to his highest ambition, to 
stimulate his greatest potencies, to spread before his mental 
vision the most satisfying prospect of worthy and enduring 
fame. 

Yet here, on the threshold of the consummation of his career, 
at the very entrance to that fair field for whose delights and 
glories all his past seemed to have been a designed prepara- 
tion, inscrutable fate had ordained that he should pause. No 
one realized the tragic pathos of the catastrophe more fully 
than did he; yet he bore the sorrow of it with a moral heroism 
equal to the physical courage which he opposed to the stoutest 
assaults of pain. He might wince, but he would not cry out; 
he could express regret, but he did not complain. And when 
his feet touched the waters of the river bevond which lies 



Address of Mr. Towne, of Minnesota. 79 

"that undiscovered country," the glance that sought inquir- 
ingly the farther shore was a glance that felt no shade of 
fear. 

As a young man he had for a time yielded to the influence 
of that irreligious skepticism which was often the too hasty 
refuge of minds strongly impressed by the wonderful develop- 
ment of the physical sciences shortly after the middle (if the 
nineteenth century. But as he grew older, and as his reading 
broadened and his habit of introspection strengthened, the 
thought that all the preparation of the centuries is purposeless 
and that the end of innumerable universes is mere nothingness 
gave no comfort to his soul and found no justification in his 
reason. 

Familiar with the ancient philosophies and with the general 
principles of recent science, he found in both of them that 
which, while it yielded no exclusive basis for a particular 
creed, yet gave ample support to the sweet assurances of the 
Christian religion respecting the future life. The Grecian 
thinkers had reached conclusions summarized in the well- 
known lines of Addison's Cato: 

It must be so, — Plato, thou reasoneth well! 

Else whence this pleasing hope, this fond desire, 

This longing after immortality? 

Or whence this secret dread and inward horror 

Of falling into naught? Why shrinks the soul 

Back on herself, and startles at destruction? 

'Tis the divinity that stirs within us; 

'Tis Heaven itself that points out an hereafter, 

And intimates eternity to man. 

Modern cosmogony, in sweeping away the ancient fond 

delusion that the sun, the moon, and the unnumbered stars, 

"still quiring to the young-eyed cherubims," circle obediently 

about the earth, the central home of specially created man, 

merely to give him light and to serve as pleasing object-, of 



So Life and Character of Cushman K. Davis. 

his aesthetic contemplation, has substituted a doctrine infinitely 
more flattering to his consequence and in itself strongly pro- 
bative of his immortality. It shows the human drama to have 
begun in the primordial chaos among the whirling atoms of 
diffused universes, the raw material of unborn worlds. 

By the operation of forces of which the finite mind can 
not begin to grasp either the subtlety or the power, through 
reaches of time for which even the strongest symbols of our 
speech are weak as aids to the faltering imagination, the laws 
of the Eternal Beneficence evolved the order of celestial sys- 
tems and the mysterious phenomena of life. At the culmina- 
tion of the long ascent of being stands man, the consummate 
product of a creative process that began before ' ' the morning 
stars sang together." Even- resource and agency of nature 
is tributary to him — first to develop the body, next to nurture 
the mind, and finally to culture the soul and fortify it for its 
career through the yet unsounded spaces of spiritual progress. 

In his primitive condition man's whole anxiety was to pro- 
cure the means of mere physical existence and security. By 
and by the chief concern of this very existence and security 
came to be the higher things of the mind. Now we are 
beginning dimly to realize that the spiritual life is the highest 
of all, the goal toward which the vital principle has been climb- 
ing through all the seons gone. There is not an analogy in 
nature that does not justify the belief that the perfection of 
this spiritual life is the very flower and purpose of creation. 
This fact crowns existence. This is the master key to what 
otherwise is a maze of unintelligible phenomena. This, in- 
deed, "vindicates the ways of God to man." 

With such inferences the teachings of the Prophet of Naza- 
reth are in full accord. To know God is, he declared, to have 
eternal life. When man entered upon the pursuit of this 



Address of Mr, Towne, of Minnesota. 8i 

knowledge he began the final stage of his destiny. The 
founding of Christianity was incomparably the most signifi- 
cant event since the very beginning of things. Said Senator 
Davis, not long before his death, in language which has 
already been quoted by the Senator from Wisconsin [Mr. 
Spooxer] : 

I know human history, and I know that in the first century something 
happened that destroyed the old world and gave birth to the new. The 
resurrection of Jesus would account for that change, and I do not know of 
any other adequate solution that has ever been proposed. 

Thus, it seems to me, the conclusions of philosophy, the 
rationale of science, and the teachings of revealed religion 
point unerringly to immortality. In this supreme conviction 
our great friend departed. Though we may mourn the loss 
of his companionship, let us find more than consolation in the 
thought that the soul whose labors seemed so untimely inter- 
rupted here is still serenely following, in a more congenial 
environment, its divinely appointed part in the eternal 
harmon}'. 

Mr. President, I respectfully ask for the adoption of the 
resolutions. 

The resolutions were unanimously agreed to: and (at 3 
o'clock and 38 minutes p. m. ) the Senate adjourned. 
S. Doc. 230 6 



Proceedings in the House 

December 3, 1900. 

Mr. Tawnky. Mr. Speaker, it becomes my painful duty 
to officially announce to this House the death of that distin- 
guished statesman, scholar, and accomplished diplomat, Senator 
Ctjshman Kellogg Davis, of Minnesota. His death occurred 
at his home, in St. Paul, Tuesday evening of last week, at 
about 1 1 o'clock. For several weeks he struggled heroically 
against a disease which at last proved too formidable for him 
to longer resist, and he yielded with a prayer upon his lips for 
the future glory of his country. 

This is not the appropriate time to speak of the illustrious 
character and distinguished public services of Senator Davis. 
We will hereafter ask the House to devote a portion of its time 
to the paying of such tributes to his memory as are befitting 
his remarkable career of public usefulness, not only in the 
Senate of the United States, but also in the councils and 
administrative affairs of his adopted State. 

His death has occurred at a time when his great ability and 
learning were most needed and when his country could least 
afford to lose him. 

As a further mark of our esteem tor the distinguished dead, 
I now offer the following resolutions. 

The Clerk read as follows: 

Resolved, That the House has heard with profound sorrow of the de ith 
of the Hon. Cushman K. Davis, a Senator of the United S 
the State of Minnesota. 

83 



84 Proceed higs in the House. 

Resolved, That as a further mark of respect to the memories of the late 
Representatives HoFFECKER and Daly and the late Senators GEAR and 
Davis, this House do now adjourn. 

Resolved, That the Clerk communicate these resolutions to the Senate 
and transmit a copy thereof to the families of the deceased Senators and 
Representatives herein named. 

The resolutions were unanimously agreed to; and accordingly 
(at 4 o'clock and 22 minutes p. m. 1 the House adjourned. 

MESSAGE FROM THE SENATE. 

A message from the Senate by Mr. Parkinson, one of its 
clerks, announced that the Senate had passed the following 
resolution: 

Resolved, That the Senate has heard with deep regret and profound 
sorrow of the death of the Hon. Cushman KeixoGG Davis, late a 
Senator from the State of Minnesota. 

Resolved, That the Secretary communicate a copy of these resolutions 
to the House of Representatives. 

Resolved, That as a further mark of respect to the memory of the 
deceased the Senate do now adjourn. 

January 10, 1901. 

Mr. Eddy. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent for the 
present consideration of the following resolution. 

The clerk read as follows: 

Resolved, That Saturday, February 2, 1901. at 3 o'clock p. m., be 
assigned for the consideration of resolutions of respect to the memory 
of the late Cushman K. Davis, a distinguished member of the United 
States Senate from the State of Minnesota. 

The Speaker. Is there objection? [After a pause.] The 
Chair hears none. 

The resolution was agreed to. 



MEMORIAL ADDRESSES. 

February 2, igoi. 

The Speaker pro tempore. Without objection, the special 
order set for 3 o'clock will be taken up now. The Chair hears 
no objection. 

Mr. Eddy. I call up the special order, and offer the following 
resolutions: 

The Clerk read as follows: 

Resolved, That it is with deep regret and profound sorrow that the 
House of Representatives hears the announcement of the death of Hon. 
Ccshman Kellogg Davis, late a Senator from the State of Minnesota. 

Resolved, That the House extends to his family and to the people of the 
State of Minnesota sincere condolence in their bereavement. 

Resolved , That, as a mark of respect to the memory of the deceased, the 
business of the House be now suspended, to enable his associates to pay 
fitting tribute to his high character and distinguished services. 

Resolved, That the Clerk transmit to the family of the deceased and to 
the governor of the State of Minnesota a cop}- of these resolutions, with 
the action of the House thereon. 

Resolved, That the Clerk communicate these resolutions to the Senate. 

Resolved, That, as an additional mark of respect, at the conclusion of 
these exercises the House do adjourn. 

The Speaker pro tempore. The question is on agreeing to 
the resolutions. 

The question was taken, and the resolutions were unani- 
mously agreed to. 

85 



86 Life and Character of Cushman K. Davis. 



Address of Mr. Fletcher, of Minnesota, 

Mr. Speaker: Cushman Kellogg Davis was born at Hen- 
derson, N. Y.. June 16, 1S38, and died at St. Paul November 2- , 
1900. 

During his birthyear his parents removed to Wisconsin and 
settled on a farm in the vicinity of Waukesha. Here the child 
developed into a sturdy youth, dividing his time between the 
common schools and the farm, cultivating simple tastes, and 
learning lessons of self-restraint and self-reliance. Ere long he 
grew impatient of the isolation and monotony incident to a 
farmer's life at that time; his gifted intellect awoke as from a 
sleep; he sought a wider horizon; he hungered to know and 
solve the problems which confronted him on all sides. 

By happy chance a college training was opened before him. 
The eagerness with which he entered upon his preparation for 
college, and the unwearied diligence with which he pursued it 
bespoke the secret cravings of his soul. In three years from 
this first serious resolve to put himself upon a higher plane he 
had accomplished the preparatory stage and matriculated at the 
University of Michigan. From this institution he graduated 
with the very highest honors in 1857. Returning to Waukesha 
he began the study of law and was admitted to the bar in i860 — 
that memorable year in which the North asserted the indivisi- 
bility of the Union by the election of Abraham Lincoln, accepted 
the challenge of the South, and submitted the integrity of the 
nation to the dreadful arbitrament of arms. 

Mr. Davis had barely entered into the practice of his profes- 
sion before the third call for volunteers in our civil war came, 
revealing to the North the magnitude of the terrible struggle 
then pending. Shutting the door of his law office, he enlisted 



Address of Mr. Fletcher, of Minnesota. 87 

in the service, and served for two years in the Army of the 
Tennessee throughout their campaigns in Kentucky, Arkansas, 
and Mississippi. During this period malaria had crept into his 
blood, fever had assailed him, and the hardships of the service 
had so worn upon him that he was incapable of discharging the 
duties expected of him. Accordingly, he resigned his commis- 
sion as first lieutenant of Company B. Wisconsin Volunteers, 
and came to his father's house. Rest, recreation, and favoring 
climatic conditions speedily wrought encouraging results, and in 
a few months his complete restoration to health was assured. 

Casting about for a place to make his home, and carefully 
considering many localities, he decided to establish himself 
in St. Paul, and there he has lived and toiled for a generation. 
Beginning at the lowest round of the ladder, without money, 
with limited acquaintance, with no adventitious aids, but with 
simple faith in himself, he steadily climbed that ladder until, 
at the end of his life, the luster of an international reputation 
shone squarely in his face. Mr. Davis never ceased to be 
glad that he had cast his lot in the then far Northwest. He 
loved St. Paul and was proud of Minnesota. 

Friendships multiplied apace; he won an enviable position 
at the bar; he became a potent factor in shaping the policy 
of the State, and the manifestations of public confidence in 
him were frequent' and unmistakable. His law practice in- 
creased in scope and importance, and great interests were so 
freely and unreservedly intrusted to his keeping that civic 
honors, which he enjoyed and could have secured, save for 
the unwillingness to accept them, were often thrust aside. 
However, he was elected a member of the State legislature, 
was appointed attorney-general of the State, made governor, 
and three times was commissioned to represent Minnesota in 
the T'nited State-. Senate. 



88 Life and Charade?- of Cushman K. Davis. 

In the last position the man and his opportunity met. For- 
tunate meeting! Here his ability was put to the test, and all 
the resources which study and reflection had stored were 
taxed to their utmost. As the ocean liner must be hauled 
out into the deep sea before its ponderous engines are given 
liberty of action, so the Senate was to Mr. Davis a congenial 
place, and his joyful activity in that body gave ample proof 
of his appreciation of the good fortune that had fallen to him. 
In what esteem his associates already held him is evidenced 
by their prompt and unusual action in giving him a com- 
manding position at the very start. 

He was not assigned to the lowest end of some relatively 
unimportant committees — a sort of probationary state where 
the new member grows familiar with his environment, acquires 
confidence, and looks to time and change for promotion — 
but to him was accorded the chairmanship of the Com- 
mittee on Pensions. The varied and exacting duties incident 
to this position he discharged with unwearied diligence 
and unruffled patience. What legislation he originated and 
secured, what abuses corrected and justice promoted, what 
friction of conflicting laws and interpretations disappeared, 
and what obstacles his hand removed for the better discharge 
of this branch of public business will never be known. He 
retired from this position, however, with net gains to himself 
everywhere. The country had come to admire and trust 
him, while his associates in the Senate had learned that, 
endowed with great intellectual force, he was a sound and 
safe legislator. 

During the Venezuelan contention, and later as chairman of 
the Committee on Foreign Relations during the Spanish war, 
and yet again as commissioner at the peace conference, the 
part which Senator Davis played has stamped him as one of 



Address of Mr. Fletcher, of Minnesota. 89 

the foremost men of this generation. His diplomatic skill, 
his familiarity with international law, and his quick insight 
into the strength or weakness of any matter under considera- 
tion were freely called into requisition and were never disap- 
pointing. If the files of the State Department were available, 
the special subjects of investigation with which he has been 
charged for the past six years, and the labor involved in their 
investigation, would disclose a record of signal public service. 
They belong to an unwritten record, traceable only in the 
policy of the nation. 

Senator Davis was not an orator in the- common acceptation 
of that term; his cast of mind was philosophic — convincing 
rather than moving his hearers. He was a profound student 
of the histories and relations of states, and yet, in the use of 
our Anglo-Saxon tongue, in the forceful and symmetrical 
unfolding of a subject, the marshaling of fact and illustration, 
I do not believe that his superior can be found in the history 
of the American Senate. 

In forming the estimate of the life of a fellow-man what dif- 
fering measurements are employed! The standpoint of many 
rests wholly on worldly possessions, and the first inquiry that 
rises to their lips is, Was he rich? What were his investments 
and his style of living, or how much power did he wield? How 
much fame did he enjoy? How much popular applause did he 
receive? Another accepts a man's actions as the sole criterion 
of his worth. What has he accomplished, is the question. 
Has he written a book or founded a city or commanded an 
army? Did he instruct the ignorant, and was he kind to the 
unfortunate? Undoubtedly the latter is a higher standpoint of 
judgment than the former. Possessions, however great, are 
outside of a man, while his conduct forms a most important 
part of him. Vet there is something behind possession- and 



go Life and Character oj Cushman K. Davis. 

performance — a life finer and more powerful than that of out- 
ward expression. Shall we name it character? Character is 
the net result of every man's life. Not what he knows, not 
what he has acquired, but what he is constitutes his essence 
and personality. 

Character is fundamental; without it individual achievement 
is simple mockery. Associate with this a tireless industry and 
trained intellect, with opportunity, and the career of Mr. Davis 
is rendered prophetic. He was indeed a manly man — honest 
and pure-minded, charitable and humane. He was actuated 
by the highest ideals of conduct, and lived in the sunshine of 
confiding neighbors. Perhaps the distinguishing characteristic 
of his mind was a certain equipoise — a knowledge of intrinsic 
value, an ability to find happiness in the common blessings of 
life, and a willingness to strike a balance between the pleasures 
and the pains that make up every life. Taken as a whole — 

A man that fortune's buffets and rewards 

Has ta'en with equal thanks; 

Whose blood and judgment are so well commingled 

That they are not a pipe for fortune's fingers 

To sound what stops she pleases. 

To most men the reaching of what Webster calls " the upper 
story" of the legal profession absorbs all their time and em- 
ploys all their energies. Not so with Mr. Davis. He roamed 
in many fields. He became a linguist, a Shakespearean scholar, 
and tasted what was best of the literatures of many lands. At- 
tracted years ago by the career of Bonaparte, he faithfully read 
what the world had to say of this wonderful military hero. 
Through this biography he familiarized himself with the Code 
Napoleon, and, back of this, made a profound study of Roman 
law; so when the coveted opportunity, somewhat delayed, at 
last came and its door was flung wide open before him, he 
passed through its threshold equipped. But one day, a few 



Address of Mr. Fletcher, of Minnesota. 91 

weeks ago, death found him in the field at work, with shining 
sickle, gathering the harvest which his labor had forecast, and 
before high noon his life sped away. Thousands will grieve- 
over his taking off. The North Star State lost in him its fore- 
most citizen, and the nation a stalwart defender and vigilant 
friend. 

But I will detain the House no longer. My simple tribute, 
inadequate though it be, I offer to the memory of my friend, 
with a full heart and in all sincerity of purpose and thought. 
What Mr. Davis said of another, with little paraphrase, may 
be spoken of him: In far-off time to come, when the hoary sanc- 
tity of age shall have made our institutions venerable, their 
annalist will gather into the golden urn of History the achieve- 
ments of Cushjian Kellogg Davis. 



92 Life and Character of Cushman K. Davis. 



Address of Mr. Jenkins, of Wisconsin. 

Mr. Speaker: Under all circumstances I feel it to be a duty 
to say at least a few words upon this solemn occasion, as a par- 
tial tribute by the people of the State of Wisconsin, whom I 
have the honor, in part, to represent, to the memory of a man 
who in life was highly respected by the people of the State of 
Wisconsin, and whose untimely death was universally deplored 
by the American people. 

The late Senator Cushman K. Davis was a respected and 
honored citizen of the State of Wisconsin before going to the 
State of Minnesota to reside, and he kept up his acquaintance 
with the people of the State of Wisconsin by his prominence in 
the public affairs of the State of Minnesota. The people of 
the State of Minnesota, appreciating his manly qualities, legal 
ability, and fitness for public life, called him to the highest 
positions within their gift, and in so doing made no mistake, 
for he creditably filled every position he occupied to the entire 
satisfaction of the people of his State, and when called by the 
legislature of the State of Minnesota to represent that State in 
the .Senate of the United States, he took a leading position in 
that body and soon forged his way to the front — an honor 
to his State and country. 

For a long time the State of Minnesota had stood high 
throughout the country on account of the great ability of her 
public servants, both' local and national, but it was reserved to 
the late Senator Davis to add still further to the high standing 
of that progressive State. 

His illness was painful news to the people of the United 
States, and his untimely death was mourned by all. Great as 
is this nation, his death was a loss and siucerelv felt. He was 



Address of Mr. Jenkins, of Wisconsin. 93 

a typical American, and his footsteps should be followed by 
those desirous of being successful public men. His life shows 
what study, application, and earnest work will accomplish. 
Starting on a common level with humanity at large, at his 
death he had reached the topmost round of the ladder of public 
tame. He was called to his home beyond the grave at a time 
when his services were of special value to the nation. ' 

Well equipped for the duties of his position, he was a leader 
among great men. Age and experience not only fitted him for 
public life, but made him conservative and a molder of public 
opinion, assisting him to a commanding position among his 
political associates, the statesmen of the nation. 

Realizing that he is no more, that his position must be filled 
by another, his services lost to the nation, the representatives 
of the people, called here together in the National Legislature 
to honor his memory, can truthfully say of him: A soldier who 
pledged his life to the perpetuity of the Union, brave and noble 
on all occasions; a brilliant and able lawyer; a devoted friend; 
a safe counselor; a close and untiring student, possessed of a 
broad and logical mind; keen and interesting in debate, an 
orator of ability ; a statesman wdiose record is a part of the his- 
torv of this great nation, whose public life as soldier and states- 
man was honorable and beneficial to the country and creditable 
to himself. We can well afford to pause in our legislative work 
to pay a tribute of respect to such departed worth. 

The history of this nation has grown important and rapidly 
during the past fifty years, and the late Senator Davis con- 
tributed his share, both as soldier and statesman, to its 
development, maintenance, and prosperity. 

The name of Cushman K. Davis will be dear to the 
hearts of the people for a long time, and it will remain 
forever preserved as a part of the history of this nation 



94 Life and Character of Cttshman K . Davis. 

through his efforts as a faithful, able public servant. His 
death was sincerely mourned by the people of the State of 
Minnesota, with whom he had lived so long and whom he had 
loved so well and had so honorably and ably represented in 
public life. Knowing his worth, they full} - realized the diffi- 
culty of selecting his successor, and they chose wisely and well. 

Regarding his death as a great loss to their State, in 
common with the people of the State of Minnesota, the 
people of Wisconsin mourn his departure and honor his 
memory, as they honored, loved, and respected him in life. 

In common with the people of my State, I had known 
of the late Senator Davis, of Minnesota, for a number of 
years, but was never closely or intimately acquainted witli 
him. At the opening of the Fifty-fourth Congress we were 
brought together by official duties and became reasonably 
well acquainted, and soon I began to have a high regard 
for his ability and his devotion to public duties. 

A close reasoner, he never yielded to sentiment, and while 
maintaining due regard for the rights of all, the growth and 
advancement of the United States was paramount at all times, 
and with him to be convinced of the justice of a national meas- 
ure was to be invincible. He was extremely valuable as a legis- 
lator, and it caused him no effort to execute his high obligations 
with vigilance and according to the highest standard of truth. 
Never once did he stop to inquire how his course in public life 
was going to affect his political standing, and he never pros- 
tituted the public good for party advantage or personal gain. 

No words can be wasted in speaking well of the departed 
Senator, aud I will cheerfully yield the balance of my time to 
tin ise who can speak more in detail of the distinguished dead 
than myself, who were closer to him in life than I was, but who 
have no greater regard for his life and memory than myself. 



Address of Mr. Tawney, of Minnesota. 95 



Address of Mr. Tawney, of Minnesota. 

Mr. Speaker: Centuries ago the immortal singer of Israel, 
in a passion of amazement and grief, exclaimed, "How are 
the mighty fallen! The glory of Israel is slain upon thy 
high places." And well he might weep, for the dead he 
mourned were "swifter than eagles; they were stronger than 
lions." Many generations have since then "joined that 
innumerable caravan that moves to the silent halls of death," 
but to-day a nation, numbering some ten thousand for ever} 1 
one of that ancient race, finds solace in its inimitable and 
inconsolable grief. 

"How, indeed, are the mighty fallen!" A great crisis in 
the affairs of a splendid nation had been reached; new prob- 
lems had been presented to her chief counselors for solution; 
she had but just launched out upon new and untried seas. 
No one feared; everyone looked onward into the future with 
rejoicing, for there, in the guiding position among those to 
whom the management of our foreign policies and to whom 
the formulation of our new domestic policies was committed, 
sit one profoundly learned in the histories and relations of the 
nations; one profoundly conscious of the spirit and of the 
powers of the American people. 

He, together with his associates, would wisely and fearlessly 
face every difficulty and bravely meet and overcome every 
obstacle. He would suffer no disastrous measures nor unwise 
policies to be inaugurated or enforced by the land of his fathers 
and his pride. But, behold! while the nation unconsciously 
relied largely upon his knowledge, foresight, and wisdom, the 
mighty one has fallen. Strange it is that at the moment 



96 Life and Character of Cushman A". Davis. 

when he was most needed, in the hour when he had risen 
to the sphere of his most brilliant usefulness, he should be 
removed, suddenly and almost without warning, from the 
scenes of his great power and lofty service, removed forever 
from the walks and haunts of men. He has joined the silent 
senate of the dead, and those who would still be guided by 
his wisdom must seek it in the dying echoes of his sympa- 
thetic voice. 

Those accustomed to search among the affairs of nations 
for signs of an overruling Providence will strive in vain to 
reconcile such dispensations as this with the goodness and 
wisdom of God. The death of Senator Davis at this par- 
ticular juncture in the important events which have recently 
transpired in our national history is, and must remain, a part 
of that inscrutable mystery of evil which has appalled and 
fascinated and illuded men from the first until now. Here, 
as always, 

We can but trust that good will fall, 

At least, far off, at last to all, 

And every winter change to spring. 

This, in some ways, peerless hero of the hour; this foremost 
of all the sons of Minnesota; this friend, in soul larger than 
his kind, was first and chiefly a great intellect. He resem- 
bled every man far more than he differed from any, but such 
difference as there was between him and others can best be 
understood as a difference of thought, power, and knowledge. 
He was a mine in the service of his nation. He had no love 
for abstractions nor for the useless subtleties of speculative 
thought, but he loved the knowdedge that comes from obser- 
vation and study, the knowledge of fact which is the only 
proper ground of theory. In constitutional and international 
law, in national histories and diplomacy, he possessed a store 



Address of Mr. Tawney \ of Minnesota. 97 

of sheer learning so vast that his colleagues and his country- 
men had come to look upon him as an invaluable counselor. 

In the power of grasping and analyzing complex interna- 
tional situations and in the rapidity and farsightedness of his 
diplomacy he had few equals and perhaps no superior. As 
one of the American representatives upon the Peace Commis- 
sion at Paris, the brilliancy of his diplomatic tactics made him 
the center of interest both in Europe and in America. His 
work as a member of this body and its beneficent consequences 
to the millions inhabiting our newly acquired possessions will 
stand forever as one of the greatest achievements of any Amer- 
ican statesman of his day and generation. In all the compli- 
cations which have arisen by reason of our new acquisitions of 
territory, in all the discussions upon the question of whether 
or not the treaty by which this territory became the absolute 
property of the Union should be ratified, his knowledge and 
wisdom was relied upon by many of his colleagues in the 
Senate, as well as by a very large part of his countrymen. 

So thorough was his habit of preparation, so complete and 
exhaustive all his powers of grasping details and weighing 
evidence, that many had come to accept his conclusions with- 
out investigation as being beyond dispute. And yet perhaps 
no American statesman of his clay influenced and fascinated 
his countrymen so entirely by his intellect as did Senator 
DAVIS. He rarely ever appealed to sentiment, although he 
was not deficient in either pathos or humor, the twin children 
of sentiment. It was the subtlety and cogency of irresistible 
logic, the overwhelming comprehensiveness of his grasp of 
.facts, on which he relied mainly in his efforts to influence the 
judgment of his colleagues and of his countrymen. It was 
these qualities that caught the attention and moved the judg- 
ment of others. It is perhaps not too much to say that he 
S. Doc. 230 7 



98 Life and Character of Cushman K. Davis. 

possessed a genius for understanding legal principles aud ap- 
plying them to complex aud difficult situations. 

Owing to this predominant intellectuality, Senator Davis was 
not a man of petty pride nor ambition. He never labored for 
effect alone. There was a simplicity and directness about him 
which commended itself to everyone who knew him. He was 
retiring and studious, not forward nor vociferous, and as a 
consequence, while universally admired aud trusted, he never 
sought to become a popular leader. Except to intimate and 
personal friends, he did not display the warmth of personal 
feeling and generous sentiment which appeals so strongly to 
the public heart and usually solicits a ready response. 

This great man seems to have died without realizing the lofti- 
ness of that esteem in which he was held by the American 
people. The surprise and pleasure with which he received the 
innumerable expressions of interest in his welfare during the 
first stages of his last illness were at once beautiful and pathetic. 
At no time in his life was it possible for him to study his own 
powers, to rejoice in the brilliancy of his own achievements, or 
to gloat over the richness of his own knowledge like a miser 
over his gold. His chief interest and delight was always his 
fellow-men. From them he drew the riches of his wisdom; to 
them he devoted his services. A man's best wisdom always 
comes from his intercourse with his fellow-men, and no man 
realized this more clearly or felt it more keenlj- than did Sena- 
tor Davis. "I believe a man's power," he once said, "is in 
direct ratio to his sympathetic understanding of the wants of 
the common people." 

In his long and eventful political career this great man. 
never once resorted to the arts of the demagogue; on the 
contrary, he more than ouce proved by word and act that his 
greatest interest was in the country as a whole. At the time 



Address of Mr. Tawney, of Minnesota, 99 

of the Chicago riots, when asked to support a curtain resolu 
tion declaring that the detachment of Pullman palace or sleep- 
ing cars from mail trains should not constitute an offense 
against the United States, he said, among other things, in that 
memorable telegram : 

I will not support the resolution; you might as well ask me 

tn dissolve this Government. 

The American people will not soon forget how this message 
brought them to a realizing sense of threatened danger thereto- 
fore unobserved. 

He was a statesman who knew the principles of government 
upon .which our nation's greatness rests. He was a director 
and counselor of leaders rather than a popular leader himself. 
Senator Davis was not, however, the man of narrow interests 
my words may seem to describe. He studied more subjects 
than the affairs of nations and the principles of law. He 
himself once said: 

The men who have achieved success are the men who have worked, 
read, thought, more than was absolutely necessary. It is the 

superfluous knowledge that equips a man for everything that counts most 
in life. There would be fewer wasted opportunities if there was more real 
ability to grasp them when they present themselves. We can not have 
too much knowledge. I believe in superfluous knowledge. It is super- 
fluous knowdedge that differentiates us. 

Senator Davis lectured on Hamlet and Madame Roland. 
He wrote a book on the law of Shakespeare — a book which is 
regarded as a great contribution to Shakespearean literature. 
Nor was he simply a reader of fine literature; he was also the 
master of a fine literary style. Wherever time and the occa- 
sion permitted he could summon to our delight the most beauti- 
ful English. One of my colleagues has said: " I think I never 
heard a speaker to whom it gave me more pleasure to listen." 
He rarely delivered an address which was not ennobled by his 



ioo Life and Character of Cushman K. Davis. 

imagination and sweetened by poetic fancy. He adorned every 
subject he touched in the treatment of which adornment was 
appropriate. As a public orator he was serious, earnest, and 
fair-minded. His wonderful lucidity and logical power were 
always persuasive, often irresistible. He was candid and earn- 
est and displayed such an appearance of reserve power in his 
manner and style of address that all listened eagerly and acted 
promptly to his suggestions. 

As a parliamentary orator he must be assigned a very high 
rank. He gave, perhaps, a more careful and systematic study 
to public questions, especially those involving our relations to 
foreign nations, than any of his associates, and came to every 
discussion in which he took part with elaborate and complete 
preparation. He could toil desperatel}-. ' ' I have slight faith, ' ' 
he once said, "in what they call genius." In such work Davis 
was apt, rapid, and skillful, possessing a rare power to readily 
absorb ideas and facts. In debate he was preeminently fair and 
candid, stooping to no unworthy advantage, making no per- 
sonal allusions, appealing to no prejudices or passions. He was 
quicker to see the strong points of his adversary than to see the 
weak ones, and this gave to his arrangement of facts and argu- 
ments on his own side that weighty marshaling that made his 
hearers forget any lack of complete strength in his own position. 

Senator Davis was not, however, a parliamentary leader. 
The qualities of candor, fairness, and sincerity, which made him 
so great, so convincing, and so admirable as an orator, did not 
tend to make him great as a parliamentarian. He was not one 
of those who stand and struggle for party whether right or 
wrong. He believed his party always right, but his soul's alle- 
giance was to truth rather than to party. In the quality of his 
mind, in temperament, and in the form of his ambition, Davis 
was rather a statesman than a parliamentarian. 



Address of Mr. Tawney, of Minnesota. 101 

In the range of his life Davis was unusual. Born at Hen 
derson, X. Y.; a university graduate at 19; a lawyer, in Wauke- 
sha. Wis., at 22: a first lieutenant of Wisconsin volunteers 
during the war; a lawyer in St. Paul; a member of the Miune- 
sota legislature; United States district attorney; governor of 
Minnesota; delegate to the Republican national convention, 
1SS4; United States Senator, 1SS7; chairman of the Senate 
Committee on Foreign Relations; American peace commissioner 
at Paris, 1898; delegate to the Republican national convention. 
June, 1900, and on November 28, 1900, gone to " the undiscov- 
ered country from whose bourn no traveler returns." 

At his death he seemed to be entering for the first time on 
that great field of action for which all his life was a splendid 
preparation. Undoubtedly, had he lived but a few months 
longer, he would have signalized his name as never before in the 
service of his country, and brought newer and greater honors to 
himself, his State, and the world. 

I always admired the great statesman for all the traits to 
which reference has been made; for all that will make his name 
immortal to his countrymen and to the world; and. possibly 
more than all, I admired him for his quiet manner, for his sim- 
ple manliness, and for the kindly interest which he always mani- 
fested toward others, and especially toward the young men of 
the legal profession. 

He thought purely, spoke kindly, acted generously; and were 
everv one for whom he did some loving service to speak the 
word of love he feels, the earth could not contain the chorus 
and heaven would be filled with song. 

Charity and toleration characterized his attitude tow T ard all 
creeds and believers. Here was one who, through all the sun- 
light and shadow of life, loved iustice, acted mercifully, and 
walked liumblv with his God. 



Life and Character of Cushman A". Davis. 



Address of Mr. Underwood, of Alabama. 

Mr. Speaker: When we meet to mourn the loss of those 
with whom we have been associated in public or private life, it 
is but natural that we should forget the differences that at 
times, perchance, separated us, and remember those qualities of 
mind and soul that united us in our mutual endeavors, strug- 
gles, and undertakings; but in passing down the highway of 
life it is our rare good fortune at times to meet a fellow-traveler 
whose greatness of character and nobility of soul raises him 
above the ordinary contentions and jealousies of those about 
him, and whose purity of life and earnestness of purpose draws 
us close to him in the bonds of personal friendship, even while 
we are contending most earnestly for the accomplishment of 
different undertakings or the success of conflicting ambitions. 
Such a man was Cushman K. Davis, the late Senator from the 
State of Minnesota. 

I can not say that it was my good fortune to know him inti- 
mately, and yet he was a friend of my father's, and I have 
known him from my childhood. My early recollections of him 
are vague and indefinite, but I shall ever remember the kind- 
ness and consideration with which he greeted me when I 
recalled my identity to him some years ago when I first came 

to Washington as a member of this House. 
i 
He was always kind and gentle to those with whom he was 

associated, evidently preferring, unless a sense of duty com- 
pelled him to act otherwise, to do injury to himself rather than 
hurt the sensibilities or put a stumbling-block in the way of 
those about him. This was one of the distinctions that singled 
him out from other men, and I know of no characteristic in 



Address of Mr. Underwood, oj Alabama. 103 

man that points more surely to the possession of nobilitj of 
character and purity of purpose than that which impels him to 
show consideration for others and leads him to acts of self- 
sacrifice. 

And yet, with all his gentleness of character, no man ever 
doubted his personal and moral courage. He was not hasty in 
action, but when he once undertook the leadership of a cause 
there was never any question of his turning backward, and his 
associates knew that he would uphold and maintain the under- 
taking he believed in and championed with the desperate deter- 
mination of a man who does not know how to surrender. 

Senator Davis was horn in New York .State on the 16th day 
of June, 1838. A few months after his birth his father moved 
to a farm near Waukesha, Wis., and it was here that he spent 
the days of his childhood and early youth. At that time his 
home was on the frontier, which gave him those surroundings 
that have developed the qualities of earnestness of purpose and 
determination of character in many of our greatest men. He 
was educated at Carroll College and the Michigan University, 
from which he graduated in 1857 with a scholastic training that 
rendered him good service in the intellectual battles in which 
he was destined to engage in the time to come. 

He was admitted to the bar in the State of Wisconsin in 
1859, and practiced his profession until the beginning of the 
civil war. when he entered the Army as a first lieutenant in a 
Wisconsin regiment and served with distinction. Soon after 
the close of the civil war he moved to St. Paul., Minn., and 
began the practice of the law. He soon acquired a large prac- 
tice, and at the time of his election to the United States Senate 
was regarded as the foremost lawyer in his adopted State. 

He was a member of the legislature, United States district 
attorney, and governor of the State of Minnesota before he was 



104 Life and Character of Cushman K. Davis. 

elected to the Senate in 1887, which position lie held continu- 
ously from that time to the day of his death. 

He served in every position to which he was called by his 
people with distinguished ability and an unfaltering desire to 
promote the welfare and happiness of those who had commis- 
sioned him to represent them. 

His most notable service to his country was rendered as 
chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee of the Senate at 
the time of the declaration of war against Spain and as one of 
the commissioners appointed by our Government to negotiate 
the treaty of Paris at the close of hostilities in the late war. . 

Nature endowed him with an intellect of the highest order; 
industry gave him an education that far surpassed that of mi 1st 
of his associates; his frontier training, his seryice in the Army, 
and his experience as a successful lawyer and great adyocate 
deyeloped, broadened, and fully equipped him for the great 
tasks his country called on him to perform. 

In the death of Cushman K. Davis, not only his State but 
his country has suffered a severe loss. He was taken from us 
in the hour of his foremost success and greatest usefulness. 
Those who knew him will mourn the loss of a true friend ; his 
countrymen will deplore the death of a learned and upright 
statesman, and history will make a place for him for the great 
achievements he accomplished. 

Were a star quenched cm high, 

For ages would its -light 
Still travel downward from the sky — 

Shine on our mortal sight. 
So when a great man dies, 

For years beyond our ken, 
The light he leaves behind him lies 

Upon the paths of men. 



Address of Mr. McCleary, of Minnesota. 105 



ADDRESS OF MR. MCCLEARY, OF MINNESOTA. 

Mr. Speaker: "Death is ever, in my opinion, bitter and 
premature to those who are engaged in some immortal work. 
Those who live from day to day immersed in pleasure finish 
each day the whole purpose of their existence; while those 
who look forward to posterity and endeavor by their exer- 
tions to hand down their names to future generations, to such 
death is always premature, as it carries them off from some 
unfiushed design." 

These words of Pliny the Younger seem peculiarly appropri- 
ate as an expression of the feeling of the nation that death 
came prematurely to Cushman Kkllogg Davis. Death 
found him a member of the United States Senate, at the head 
of its great Committee on Foreign Relations, at a critical 
period of his country's history, in the midst of a work which 
he by common consent was better fitted than anyone else to 
continue and conclude in his country's interest. He was ap- 
proaching, too, the harvest time of that generous fame toward 
which he justly aspired and in preparation for which he so 
long and honorably wrought. 

He better and more clearly than almost anyone else under- 
stood the nature and magnitude of the international questions 
before the country, and it was not immodesty in him to recog- 
nize his own superior fitness to lead in their solution. It was 
in this spirit that in one of the last of his conscious moments 
he uttered the pathetic wish, "Oh, that I might live five years 
more for my country's sake." 

In addressing the Roman populace on the occasion of Cae- 
sar's funeral his friend Mark Antony said: "The evil that 



106 Life and Character of Cuskman K. Davis. 

men do lives after them, the good is often interred with their 
bones." And Griffith, in speaking to Queen Catharine rela- 
tive to the death of Cardinal Wolsey, said: "Men's evil 
manners live in brass, their virtues we write in water." But 
it must be remembered, sir, that in each of these cases the 
speaker was addressing an audience hostile to the person whose 
praises he was about to speak. 

The sentiment quoted constituted in each case an introduc- 
tion calculated to disarm resentment toward the dead. It was 
in no sense intended by the poet as the statement of a general 
truth. He knew human nature too well and had too much 
respect for it, with all its infirmities, to ascribe to it such un- 
kindness. More consonant with both the justice and the gen- 
erosity of human nature is the maxim of the old philosopher, 
" De mortuis nil nisi bonmn." From the bosom of the grave 
springs no feeling but " fond regret and tender recollection." 

The principal events of Senator Davis's life have been so 
admirably stated, in the exercises of the Senate some weeks ago 
and here to-day, that I shall not repeat them. I propose to 
speak of my departed friend as he impressed me and as I re- 
member him. 

I think of him most frequently as I so often found him — alone, 
apparently musing, quietly puffing his cigar, solace of his many 
hours. Often, finding him thus, in his committee room or else- 
where, have I felt a delicacy about breaking in upon his 
thoughts. But I can hear even now his cheery voice bidding 
me welcome and inviting me to be seated. And he was so en- 
tirely candid that I never doubted the sincerity of the welcome 
thus given. 

It need hardly be said in this presence that Senator Davis 
was a man of scrupulous integrity. He trod no devious paths. 
While never loquacious, he was always frank. He had high 



Address of Mr. McCleary, of Minnesota. 107 

ideals of public duty. Elected to the legislature and to the 
governorship of the State and three times to the United States 
Senate, he never in any of those contests appealed to motives 
other than the highest. 

Senator Davis was an exceptionally methodical man. That 
was one reason why he accomplished so much and with such 
apparent ease. It was his practice, for example, to reach his 
committee room in the Senate every morning promptly at 8.30. 
There he would meet his stenographer, read his letters, and in- 
dicate briefly the character of the answer to each. The answers 
to these letters he read and signed each evening at the close of 
the session of the Senate. He answered every letter that he 
received, and complied with ever}' request, whether it came 
from rich or poor, if it was reasonably possible. Amid all his 
cares and weighty responsibilities, he was punctilious in the 
discharge of even the smallest duties and courtesies. 

To private citizens who desired to see him on business, his 
injunction was, " Meet me in my committee room at 9 o'clock 
in the morning." And he insisted upon promptness on the 
part of those who wished thus to see him. This insistence 
was not due to pride or to an imperious will, though he had a 
proper and reasonable share of both. It was due to his recog- 
nition of the necessity for his transacting business promptly 
and systematically in order that all the numerous and impor- 
tant duties resting upon him might be possible of performance. 

After disposing of his correspondence and receiving those 
who called upon him on official or other business, .Senator 
Davis usually devoted the remainder of the forenoon to the 
study of the legislative matters in which he was interested. 
It thus became possible for him to spend in the Senate 
Chamber itself most of the time of the daily session, extend- 
ing from 12 to 5, well prepared to meet its exacting duties. 



io8 Life and Character of Cushman K. Davis. 

Except in very rare and important cases he would not 
attend to business in the evening. His evenings were sacred 
to his family, his friends, and his books. He had the very 
sane notion that in most callings by proper management one 
can and should earn his living in the daytime. Even in the 
early days of his professional life, when he had the usual 
struggle which a young man of limited financial resources lias 
to expect, he never took his law books or his cases home with 
him. Xo man cared less for the frivolities of society, but no 
man liked better to spend an evening with friends. 

He was a lover of books. With Milton, he recognized that 
a good book is "the precious lifeblood of a master spirit, 
embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life." 

He was so fond of books that he did not like to borrow 
them. He wanted to own them. From time to time as 
means permitted he bought the books he liked. In his home 
in St. Paul and in his other home in Washington the walls 
of several rooms became lined with his precious tomes, many 
of them in elegant bindings. 

In his library he spent, perhaps, his happiest hours. He 
could truthfully say: 

That place that doth contain 
My hooks, the best companions, is to me 
A glorious court, where hourly I converse 
With the old sages and philosphers. 

And in this eternal court, "wide as the world and multitudi- 
nous as its days," what exalted companionship he chose and 
kept — in art, Shakespeare: in action, Napoleon! Making such 
choice where choice was free, he revealed his own inherent 
nobility. 

Senator Davis was preeminently a student. It was entirely 
in keeping with his character and habits that each of his four 



Address of Mr. McCleary, of Minnesota. 109 

famous lectures on international law, delivered in October, 
[897, to the faculty and students of the Universit) of Minne- 
sota, began with the words, "Mr. Dean and _/f//0H/-students. " 
There was nothing of pretense or condescension in these words. 
They stand for two facts — his never-failing; interest in young 
people and his never-ending studentship. 

While he did not underestimate the importance of the achieve- 
ments of science or fail to appreciate ami enjoy many of the 
beauties of nature, he was not especially interested in natural 
science. For him it was indeed true that the greatest study 
for mankind is man. He took special delight, therefore, in 
history and literature. 

In college he took the regular classical course, and never 
lost his faith in it as the best of all college courses for mental 
development. .Speaking once to a bright young man, he said: 

Go and take a thorough classical course in college. Then come to me, 
and I'll make a lawyer of you. 

In commenting recently on his life and work, the Philadel- 
phia Public Ledger well said: 

He was a splendid example of the worth of the scholar in American 
political and legislative life. 

He loved "the wisdom of the old days." He believed in 
what he himself so happily denominated "superfluous knowl- 
edge." His career demonstrated anew that knowledge is in- 
deed power. His favorite evening recreation was reading. As 
the fabled Antaeus, when thrown to the ground by Hercules, 
renewed his strength by contact with his mother, Earth, and 
rose up stronger for each new encounter, so our friend was 
wont, after each day's toil, to renew his strength and rekindle 
his inspiration by traveling "the green shades of Academus" 
and holding "high converse with the mighty dead." 



1 10 Life and Character of Cushtnan K. Davis. 

He had a marvelous memory. But his ability to retain im- 
portant facts and phrases was not simply a feat of memory; it 
was the faculty of a trained mind in properly disposing of his 
mental acquirements so that they might be available when 
needed. In this connection the words of his talented friend, 
Rev. Samuel G. Smith, of St. Paul, are suggestive and signifi- 
cant : 

[n summing him up account must be taken of a power he had, in com- 
mon with the greatest minds, of applying certain general conceptions to 
various fields of thought and life. His guesses were of more value than 
the painful researches of most men. 

Senator Davis's oratory was of the classic type, both in mat- 
ter and in method. His speeches exhibit great breadth of com- 
prehension and exquisite beauty of expression. They are 
marked by richness of imagery, copiousness of vocabulary, 
felicity of language, and grace of diction. 

The exordium of an address delivered on the battlefield of 
Gettvsburg on July 2, 1897, on the occasion of the unveiling of 
the statue erected by the State of Minnesota to commemorate 
the never-to-be-forgotten charge made there by the First Regi- 
ment Minnesota Infantry Volunteers on the 2d day of July, 
[863, will serve as an illustration of his style: 

How lovingly Peace, enrobed in her imperial mantle of golden harvests, 
reigns over this delicious landscape! The refulgent armor of war now 
rusts beneath our feet. The cannon that we see here in position among 
the ranks which sleep in the invincible array of death are silent forever. 
Peace now holds an unbroken sway over our dear land. And yet thirty- 
four years ago to-day she fled affrighted from this scene. The fiery char- 
iots of War were reaping here her fields and were gathering a harvest of 
men into that tabernacle of never-ending rest, wherein all grains and 
fruits and flowers and men and all living things must be garnered at last. 

Senator Davis was a man of courage and resolution. A 
marked illustration of this was given in his famous telegram of 
about July 1, 1894. The country was in the midst of deep 



Address of Mr. McCleary, of Minnesota. in 

business depression. Untold thousands of men were out of 

employment. A labor conflict of giant proportions was in 

progress. The strength of our institutions was being t 

and anxiety was in the hearts of all men who loved their coun 

try. A resolution was introduced in the United States Senate 

the object of which was to allow strikers to stop all railway 

traffic, providing they did not interfere with the carriage of the 

United States mails. A committee, assuming to speak in the 

name of the workingmen of Duluth, wired Senator Davis 

requesting him t<> support the resolution. The message 

arrived after he had gone to bed. Without waiting to dress. 

and without seeming to have any anxiety but to do his duty, 

he wrote in pencil and sent back by the messenger an answer 

in which he unequivocally refused to support the resolution, 

saying: 

I have received your telegram. I will not support the resolution. It is 
against vour own real welfare. It is also a blow at the security, peace, 
and rights of millions of people who never harmed you or your associates. 
My duty to the Constitution and the laws f. >rbids me to sustain a resolu- 
tion to legalize lawlessness. The same duty rests upon you and vour 
associates. The power to regulate commerce among the several States is 
vested by the Constitution in Congress. Your associates have usurped 
that power at Hammond and other places, and have destroyed commerce 
between the States in these particular instances. You are rapidly ap- 
proaching the overt act of levying war against the United States, and you 
will find the definition of that in the Constitution. I trust that wiser 
thoughts will again control. You might as well ask me to vote to dis- 
solve the Government. 

This message, instinct with the courage of a patriot and the 
kindness of a father, was published at once in all the news- 
papers of the country, and was everywhere regarded as "the 
word fitly spoken." Dread vanished. All felt safe on learn- 
ing that so strong, so just, so gentle a soul was in the halls 
of power. 

While his charity and loving-kindness were world-wide in 



1 12 Life and Character of Cushman A'. Dan's. 

their embrace, Senator Davis was intensely American in his 
faith and affections. In the language of the New York Sun: 

The key to Senator Davis's attitude on all important questions of 
domestic or foreign policy was his sincere and invincible belief that this 
Republic had always been adequate, and always will be adequate, to every 
emergency at home and abroad. 

In the same tenor spoke the Chicago Times-Herald: 

No public man of the day looked to the future with greater confidence 
or bad greater contempt for the bogy of imperialism than Senator Davis. 

He knew that it is true of nations as of men that ' ' to whom- 
soever much is given, of him shall much be required." He did 
not believe that, in the purposes of Him who holds the fate of 
nations in the hollow of His hand, this nation, "the heir of all 
the ages," was designed to live unto itself alone. The seven- 
teenth and eighteenth centuries he saw as the period of its 
gestation and birth, and the nineteenth century as the period 
of its growth and development: and with prophetic vision he 
saw that in the twentieth century his country was to take up its 
burden of world-work. 

Sweeping the ages with far-seeing eye, he witnessed the birth 
of man in distant Asia. He followed human migration west- 
ward into Europe, across Europe to the shores of the Atlantic, 
across that ocean to the eastern coast of America, thence across 
the continent to the Pacific, and now recently he beheld this 
country reach across the peaceful ocean and touch hands with 
Asia again. He knew the story of this world-encircling move- 
ment, the history of which is the history of the onward and 
upward march of civilization. And he felt that it was well for 
this, the youngest and strongest of the great nations, to return 
to the ancient home, like a young and prosperous man to the 
home of his mother, to share with her the fruitage of his labors 
and to give her of his strength. 



Address of Mr. McCleary, of Minnesota. 113 

Mr. Speaker, we knew him, we loved him, we have lost him. 

We miss him and we mourn him; but we mourn not as they 

who are without hope. We believe that — 

Since He who knows our frame is just. 
Somewhere, somehow, meet we must. 

"At what employment would you have death find you? For 
my part I would have it in some humane, beneficent, public- 
spirited, noble action." Thus asked and answered Epictetus 
the Stoic. Had the question been put to him whose life 
and death we commemorate to-day, our departed friend would 
undoubtedly have answered in the spirit of the old Roman 
philosopher. And, sir, such was indeed the event. He was at 
his post of duty, serving his country and his kind, when " God's 
finger touched him and he slept." 
S. Doc. 230 8 



ii4 Life and Character of Cuskman K. Davis. 



Address of Mr. Clark of Missouri. 

Mr. Speaker : It is in harmony with the eternal fitness of 
things that Missouri's voice should mingle with that of Min- 
nesota in paying tribute to Cushman Kellogg Davis, because 
these two magnificent Commonwealths are bound together by a 
strong tie by reason of having been represented at the other 
end of the Capitol by the same man, that illustrious statesman 
and heroic soldier, James Shields, who was a major-general in 
two wars and the only man living or dead who was ever sent 
to the Senate of the United States by three different States. 

That such a career as that of Senator Davis is possible iu 
this country is one of the crowning glories of our free institu- 
tions. A farmer's son on the frontier, working with his own 
hands and proud of the fact ; a graduate of a great university 
and an honor to it by reason of his erudition ; a gallant soldier 
while still a youth ; a leader at the bar of the Northwest, 
where competition is intense and merciless, first as a country 
lawyer, then as a practitioner iu a great city ; member of the 
legislature, United States district attorney, governor of his 
State at 36, an age at which most men are still struggling for a 
solid footing ; thrice elected to the Senate of the United States, 
each time for a full term ; chairman of the Committee on 
Foreign Relations, and one of the commissioners who negotiated 
the treaty of Paris, he died at 63, a time of life at which 
European statesmen are considered young. There is only one 
position in our system of government higher than that which 
he held, and many deemed the highest not beyond his reach. 

From the bare list of his employments it would seem that he 
had no time for anything else ; yet he managed somehow to 
reserve from his pursuits as a man of affairs leisure to keep up 



Address of Mr. Clark, of Missouri. 115 

his literary studies to such an extent that he became an 
accepted authority, and was universally recognized as lending 
a new glory to the character of "the scholar in politics." 

His golden opportunity came to him within the last three 
years as chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations, and 
he seized it with resolute hand and brave, unfaltering heart, 
thereby vastly increasing his fame. 

In the years to come he will be remembered as a lawyer, 
soldier, scholar, statesman, diplomat, bibliophile; but his 
intense Americanism will form his clearest title to lasting 
renown and to the gratitude of his countrymen. 

Shakespeare's dictum — 

The evil that men do lives after them ; 
The good is oft interred with their bones, 

is reversed in the case of Senator Davis. The good which he 
wrought in the closing months of his life — and it was a great 
good — will be referred to as a guide and inspiration by states- 
men yet unborn in troublous crises involving the honor, the 
dignity, and the safety of our puissant and beloved country. 
The ' ' Davis amendment ' ' will constitute a landmark in our 
history as imperishable as the "Wilmot proviso." Verily, his 
works do follow him. 

At the close of the long session of this Congress no member 
of either House seemed fuller of lusty life, of high resolve, of 
ennobling patriotism, than Cushman K. Davis. Before the 
present session began his splendid career was closed. 

Death takes us by surprise 

And stays our hurrying feet ; 
The great design unfinished lies, 

Our lives are incomplete. 

But in the dark unknown 

Perfect their circles seem, 
Even as a bridge's arch of stone 

Is rounded in the stream. 



1 1 6 Life and Character of Cushman K. Davis. 



Address of Mr. Parker, of New Jersey. 

Mr. Speaker: The loss of Cushman K. Davis is felt by the 
whole country, to which he belonged. He was in life and 
character the statesman. As a soldier, at the bar, as governor, 
as Senator, and in high diplomatic functions that life was 
devoted to his country's service, for which he was fullv fitted, 
not only by his experience and training, but by his learning, 
judgment, activity, will power, and that love of country that 
must be at the root of all. 

Among his great contemporaries it is not too much to say 
that he was distinguished for the breadth and accuracy of his 
learning, his knowledge of law, of men, and of the affairs of 
state, his clearness of thought and expression, his force of 
character, and his always dominating patriotism. He had been 
a soldier; and war in all ages has done more than all the 
schools to make statesmen, because it teaches promptness, self- 
reliance, the need of looking ahead and of providing for emer- 
gency, and the knowledge of mankind. He was a thorough 
lawyer. As such soldier and lawyer and in his mastery of the 
art of direct and clear statement he reminds us strongly of the 
great judge whose memory we shall honor on John Marshall 
day. 

He went right to the heart of every subject. His learning 
was for use, and never for ornament. While his studies were 
in the whole domain of the knowable, his recreation, we are 
told, was found in the works of Shakespeare and in the life of 
Napoleon. From Shakespeare he had learned the use of words, 
the unerring selection and employment of those edge tools of 
speech with which he was wont to dissect a subject in a 



Address of Mr, Parker, of New Jersey. 117 

sentence. In the history of Napoleon he came face to face 
with the problems of modern civilization, amid the first rush of 
the new social forces, the sudden conflict between kings and 
people, tyranny and freedom, institutions and revolutions, and 
he found his pleasure in following the workings of that master 
mind, which, with all its shortcomings, resettled the laws and 
government, as well as the map, of Europe. 

He was brave. He never served the time. He dared to 
speak his mind as he himself thought to be right. His words 
rang through the country when he warned citizens of his native 
State: 

You are rapidly approaching the overt act of levying war on the United 
States, and you will find the definition of that act in the Constitution. 

In great matters of state he was trusted to lead. He drew 
the declaration of war with Spain, and he was the first named 
of the Senators on the commission that settled the treaty of 
peace. 

He died in harness, when we hoped for him long years of 
usefulness and honor. He deserved well of the Commonwealth. 
Through life his motto seemed to be: 

Be just, and fear not: 
Let all the ends thou aim'st at be thy country's, 
Thy God's, and truth's. 



n8 Life and Character of Cushman K. Davi 



ADDRESS OF MR. HEATWOLE, OF MINNESOTA. 

Mr. Speaker: Nations, like individuals, are sometimes called 
upon to pause at the threshold of the unknown and contemplate 
the lives and characters of their great men, who, by the force 
of their intellect and their indomitable will power, have achieved 
good fortune for themselves and inscribed their names in the 
temple of fame, who have led in the great battles of human 
progress, and by their broad comprehension have planned and 
accomplished a fuller and higher happiness for the people and 
a brighter glory for their country. 

We pause to-day to pay honor to the memory of Cushman 
Kellogg Davis, late a Senator from the State of Minnesota, 
and to offer tribute to the life and character of a great man. 
It is with mingled feelings of sorrow and pleasure that I bring 
a heart's sincere homage and lay it on the altar of friendship 
in memory of a devoted friend, and say these words of one who 
has done so much for his country. After the splendid eulogies 
offered by his colleagues in the Senate Chamber little remains 
but to repeat their rehearsal of his many attainments. 

During the years I knew Senator Davis I learned to love 
and respect him. I had opportunity to study his life and can 
testify to the grandeur of his noble character. Senator Davis 
went to the Northwest in early childhood with his parents, 
who were pioneers in the settlement of that great section, and 
who were among those who laid broad and deep the founda- 
tions of the mighty States of a then new country. Possessing 
rare gifts of intellect, young Davis made the most of his oppor- 
tunities and acquired a broad and liberal education. 

Early in his life came the great civil struggle. Mr. Davis, 
responding to the country's call, was among those who marched 



Address of Mr. Heatwole, of Minnesota. ii>; 

to battle under the Union flag. For nearly three years, on 
many hard-fought fields, he attested his loyal devotion to his 
lofty conception of patriotism and love of home and native 
land. His life was simple and his manner gentle, but there 
was that heroic stuff in his make-up which led him to brave 
any danger and endure any hardship of camp or field when 
duty demanded. While he was one of the bravest and truest 
of those who fought for the Union cause, he harbored no bitter 
resentment against those who were in arms on the other side 
of that great struggle. His words have done much to cement 
that new Union which had its resurrection from the graves of 
fallen heroes. 

Senator Davis was a thinker of the highest order, a great stu- 
dent — exceptionally fond of books; a man of lofty intellect, and 
cared more for learning than for display. He was thoroughly 
trained in the law, a deep and earnest student of history, and 
his mind was a complete storehouse of useful facts from which 
he could readily draw in any emergency. He was thoroughly 
versed in all questions of political economy and a perfect master 
in the intricate questions involved in international relations. 
Our country has produced few international lawyers of broader 
scope of intellect than that possessed by Senator Davis. He 
was broad enough to accord to other nations all the rights which 
they could justly claim, while guarding with an ever-jealous care 
the interest and honor of his own country. 

1 luring his service in the Senate many grave questions have 
arisen; many mighty problems have presented themselves, and 
many new duties and new responsibilities have come to the 
American people. Amid all the storms and passions of political 
discussions his mind was calm and his words were those of sober- 
ness and wisdom. When the clouds have been the darkest and 
hung lowest over the horizon of American enterprise, his mind 



120 Life and Character of Cushman K. Davis. 

was bright and laden with a hope that looked above them and 
saw the calm, clear sky of prosperity. 

Amid all disturbance, whether in the islands of the sea, in 
the war with Spain, or in the sad, dark hours of waiting and 
disaster in China, Senator Davis, as chairman of the Senate 
Committee on Foreign Relations and as a member of the Paris 
Peace Commission, exercised a wisdom and prudence that 
brought new glory to the American name and added new luster 
to the history and achievements of the Republic. As citizens 
of this great country we feel justly proud of the attainments of 
our people and of the place which the United States of America 
occupies among the nations of the earth. We are a glorious 
nation, and he whose memory we honor to-day was in the front 
rank of those who have done most to make it so and to point 
out to us the grand possibilities of the future. 

The death of Senator Davis removes from us one of the truest 
of patriots and the wisest of counselors. As I have said before, 
many grave questions have arisen and many new problems of 
government, of human liberty, and of human destiny confront 
us. The war with Spain, or rather the result of that war, has 
brought new lands ami new peoples to us for guidance and good 
government. The late troubles in China have brought the 
world to a full realization of the wider scope of American influ- 
ence in the settlement of the world's problems. While these 
have added new glory, they have added new duties. 

No nation ever had before it greater opportunities than are 
presented to us to-day. Duty calls us to bless these lands and 
peoples, recently acquired, with peace, happiness, and civil 
liberty. Shall this grand hope be realized? Shall human 
liberty rise from this last baptism of blood and fire to higher 
and purer realms and send forth a clearer and stronger stream 
to bless mankind, or shall it mark the downward turn of the 



Address of Mr. Heatwole, of Minnesota. 121 

Republic and of human rights? These were the questions 
which Senator Davis had so much at heart. He gave much 
thought to them and their solution, and one can not estimate 
the loss we have sustained in his death. 

Those who best knew Senator Davis realized that it was his 
highest aim to be among those who should lead our people to a 
higher destiny; and standing to-day, as it were, in the very 
presence of the dead leader, we should be inspired to the same 
patriotic devotion to duty, and as the representatives of the 
greatest nation of modern times should pledge ourselves anew 
to the great principles of human liberty which he so ably 
advocated. 

Senator Davis was very dear to the people of Minnesota. 
He was exceptionally popular with the masses, and held in 
affectionate regard by them. They honored him by electing 
him to the highest offices within their gift. But to whatever 
post he was called he rilled it with honor to himself and with 
the interests of the people at heart. Senator Davis belongs 
not alone to Minnesota, not alone to the West, but to the whole 
American people. He served his country and served it well; 
and, as the representatives of the people, we come to-day to 
crown him with the glory which he so well deserves. 

He brought to the discussion and consideration of every 
public question a rare wisdom and profound scholarship that 
enabled him to look at every detail of such questions with the 
keenest insight, and to see clearly the effects of the adoption of 
certain policies. He had that rich gift of sound reasoning and 
plain speech which enabled him to set his own knowledge so 
clearly before others that they were convinced by the logic of 
his arguments and won over by the kindliness of his persuasion. 
His life will ever lie a bright example, and his writings and 
speeches will live when he is forgotten. 



122 Life and Character of Cushman K. Davis. 

With tender hands devoted friends have consigned his dust 
to earth, and we realize that a man of lofty character, sublime 
life, and dauntless courage has gone from us; but the influ- 
ence of his life and character still lives in the hearts of his 
countrymen, and it has added to the great stream of mighty 
influence a force that will broaden in its effects on the world's 
course during future time. A true man, a kind friend, a wise 
statesman, a ripe scholar, and a noble patriot has passed away. 
"But so well had he performed life's work that when the sum- 
mons came to join the innumerable caravan which moves to 
that mysterious realm he was so sustained and soothed by an 
unfaltering faith that he approached his grave like one who 
wraps the draperies of his couch about him and lies down to 
pleasant dreams." 



Address of Mr. Spalding^ of North Dakota. 123 



ADDRESS OF MR. SPALDING, OF NORTH DAK01 

Mr. Speaker: The State of North Dakota is highly hon- 
ored by participating in these proceedings. Yet I realize that 
after the eloquent tributes that have been here paid to the 
memory of one of the greatest and most unselfish statesmen 
of the present generation, and in the light of his long career 
of usefulness just closed, nothing I may say can add to the 
high esteem in which for so many years he was held by the 
people of the Northwest, who knew him intimately, or by 
the people of the whole country, before whom he appeared 
as a commanding figure at a later date. 

The people of Minnesota and those whom I have the honor 
to represent are very closely associated, not only geographic- 
ally, but in occupation and industries. The two States were 
once parts of the same great Territory. The great cities of 
Minnesota are the natural market places for the products of 
the farms of North Dakota. The older and larger State 
watches with solicitude the record that is being made by her 
younger sister, and this feeling is reciprocal to a degree that 
is perhaps unknown in any other section of the country. 

Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of my constituents were 
friends and acquaintances of Senator Davis, and they all 
watched with pride and approbation his distinguished career, 
rejoicing with the people of Minnesota at the honors which 
he brought that State and the nation. They recognized in 
him not a man who used his high trust to dispense patronage 
through the appointing power or who sought office as an end 
in itself. With him office was a means to an end, and the 
fact that his ideals were high and his aspirations noble made 



124 Life and Character of Cushman A'. Davis. 

contact with him inspiring and helpful. As a student of con- 
stitutional and international law he was patient and untiring, 
until in the end he became a recognized authority on these 
important questions at home and abroad and was able to ren- 
der invaluable service to his country at a critical period in 
its history. 

The man who is quick to recognize opportunity and, reen- 
forced by courage and ability, has the disposition to embrace 
it and to fully meet all its requirements and responsibilities 
is the American — I may say the world — ideal of a statesman. 
Such a man was Senator Davis. 

To most opportunities come only in the humbler walks of 
life; to some in local affairs, and only to the few is it given 
to open the door to achievement in national and international 
concerns. At rare intervals some are called to defend their 
native land upon the tented field. But rare indeed is the man 
who finds his sphere of action on all these stages, and still 
more rare is he who faces each with its resulting duty with 
sucb intelligence, fortitude, and courage as to come off con- 
queror. Cushman K. Davis was one of these rare men. 

Like so man} - of the men famous in American history, his 
boyhood was passed on the farm. To what extent he owed 
to the rigors and hardships of his early training his later 
intellectual vigor may not be known, but doubtless to a very 
great extent. 

His school life barely passed when his country called to 
arms. The Republic, in whose service he was to spend so 
many noble years, was in danger. Though just beginning the 
practice of his chosen profession, he did not hesitate. He 
turned his back upon the allurements which that profession 
possessed for one of his talent and ambition and marched to 
war, where he served as a gallant soldier of the Union. What 



Address of Mr. Spalding, of North Dakota. 125 

an opportunity! What a beginning for a great career! I have 
no doubt, Mr. Speaker, that dearer to Senator Davis than 
any of the distinguished honors which subsequently were bis 
was the memory of bis humble sen-ice in camp and field in 
defense of the eternal principles for which that war was waged. 

Mr. Speaker, statesmen and reformers may moralize con 
cerning the iniquity and barbarism of war and the best means 
of promoting peace, but so long as human nature abides so 
long will wars come, and the pride of man find its chiefest 
gratification in military renown and in the acclaim which is 
so willingly accorded the martial hero. As a soldier Sena 
tor Davis performed a soldier's duty modestly, yet faithfully. 
In itself a military career had for him no attractions. His 
days of warfare over, he returned to civil life. 

In the then frontier State of Minnesota that life was not 
without opportunity, and he at once entered upon a career 
that was to develop into magnificent proportions and show 
itself rich in capacity of the noblest and highest character. 
His analytical mind, studious habits, .mil faithfulness to even- 
trust . combined with an intellectual culture that is seldom 
attained by men in active public life, soon gave him promi- 
nence at the bar. 

From leadership at the bar he was called to the guberna- 
torial chair, and then to the United States Senate, where he 
served his country with enthusiastic devotion, combining the 
learning of the lawyer, the polish of the man of letters, the 
courage of never-failing conviction, the tact of ripening expe- 
rience, and the wisdom of rapidly broadening statesmanship 
with the patriotism of one who, more than all else, loved Ins 
country. Upon these foundations he built a superstructure 
which has touched the clouds. His committee in the Senate 
was the committee of Sumner, Sherman, Mason, Hamlin, and 



126 Life and Character of Cushman A". Davis. 

others of equal fame, but he held his high place with a dig- 
nity which honored both it and him. 

High as the American people hold the names of his illus- 
trious predecessors, none exhibited greater tact or wisdom than 
did the late Senator Davis. Xone were confronted with more 
intricate problems for solution, and none met them with a 
broader outlook for the future. 

Mr. Speaker, it is one of the characteristics of human nature 
to forget the frailties and to enlarge on the virtues of our 
public men as the sphere of their action recedes. The world 
has changed since the days of the fathers. Steam, electricity, 
and kindred inventions and discoveries bring people closer 
together. 

Many great statesmen of the past would hardly be recog- 
nized if living to-day and compelled to submit to modern 
social and political inspection. In their day the politician 
and statesman were viewed from afar, and the fact alone that 
one was a Senator was sufficient to surround him with a halo 
of glory. 

To-day the merest nothings spoken by the politician, as well 
as the profoundest utterances of the statesman, are read in 
every hamlet as soon as uttered; greatness is not exaggerated 
as of old, and the statesman is recognized as human. 

Senator Davis possessed many of the qualities of the states- 
man of former days and the additional and more exacting qual- 
ifications requisite in the modern statesman, and his talent 
solved the problems which he encountered quite as intelligently 
as did the wisdom of the fathers solve the problems of a former 
period. He was essentially the man for his time, and the 
world has gained because he lived in it. 

Faithful as soldier, distinguished as governor, eminent as 
Senator, by his skill, wisdom, and foresight as a commissioner 



Address of Mr. Spalding, of North Dakota. 127 

and diplomat, he won fresh distinction for himself, reflected 
greater credit upon his State, and brought most lasting honor 
to his country, and. if accepted, most beneficial results to the 
islands of the sea. 

His services will never be forgotten, and let us hope that, 
like that of the fathers, his record, too, will from year to year 
acquire added luster. 

On behalf of the people of my State — his old friends and 
neighbors — I have thus briefly, and I know feebly, given 
expression to their sense of the great loss which the nation 
has suffered in the untimely death of Senator CuSHMAN K.' 
Davis. 



128 Life and Character of Cushman A'. Davis. 



ADDRESS BY MR. STEVENS, OF MINNESOTA. 

Mr. Speaker: All who knew Cushman K. Davis well real- 
ized his capabilities for usefulness to his State and to his 
country. 

His life and career illustrated and formed a notable part of 
the progress and history of that section of our nation which 
nourished and ever loyally and proudly supported him. 

Every locality has its peculiar development in moral and 
political influence and material progress. It generally has 
suniL- personage who has led his fellows in their united action 
for the public good, freely used his life and talents for the 
common weal, and impressed his progressive ideals upon those 
who may be subject to his influence. The life and character, 
the labors, the power and fame of Cushman K. Davis seem 
to occupy such a position to the vast Northwestern section of 
our country. 

Born of the sturdy stock of New England and northern New 
York, he inherited the keen intellectual capacity, the untiring 
mental activity, the fineness and thoroughness of culture, the 
lofty patriotic ideals which marked the distinguished of that 
powerful race. Removed in early youth to the northern fron- 
tier of our country, he was reared amid the privations, the 
struggles, and the successes of that environment. He acquired 
that spirit of helpfulness and practicability, of independence 
and largeness of view and purpose, that confidence in personal 
and public growth and triumphs, which have attended the 
development of the wonderful Northwest. 

His education was received at its institutions, and he imbibed 
the love of liberty and the adaptation of the most generous 



Address of Mr. Stevens, of Minnesota. 129 

culture and the broadest learning to the amelioration of the 
condition of his fellow-men. With this equipment the young 
man commenced his life's work. When came the call to arms, 
he freely and quickly offered himself to the service of his 
country and performed his share in a modest, straightforward 
way in that awful conflict. At its close, broken in health, he 
again sought the invigorating climate of his beloved Northwest 
and became a citizen of Minnesota. 

He entered fully and zealously into all the spirit of those 
stirring times. He performed his duties as a popular and 
public-spirited citizen, as an ever rising, learned, and influen- 
tial member of the bar, and as an enlightened public official in 
whatever station he might be chosen to fill. 

He was elected governor of Minnesota in 1874, when that 
State was agitated over the contest between the producing 
classes, with their hardships and burdens, on the one side, 
and on the other the vast transportation interests, hampered 
with unwise and unprofitable investments. He carried him- 
self so safely and wisely that thenceforward the people 
believed in him as their champion and their leader, while the 
great business interests also realized his breadth, his wisdom, 
and his integrity as a statesman. 

He entered the Senate of the United States in iSsy.andat 
once concerned himself in those questions affecting the wel- 
fare of his people. The Dakotas possessed a population of 
emigrants from the eastern sections of the country and the 
northern nations of Europe. The} - had been accustomed to 
a large measure of self-government, and were most practical 
and progressive in adapting the forms and the spirit of the 
older institutions to the peculiar conditions which confronted 
them upon the vast prairies and mountains and forests of the 
West. Such a people needed self-government to properly 
S. Doc. 230 9 



130 Life and Character of Cuskman K. Davis. 

develop and direct their own affairs, and Senator Davis 
exerted his vigorous power, his influence and argument, and 
contributed greatly to secure the much-desired boon. 

He realized, too, that the people of the Northwest could 
never reap the full reward of their exertions until their 
products should reach the markets of the world by the easiest 
possible route and at the least possible cost. So, his untiring 
efforts early directed the attention of the nation to the 
improvement of the lock and canal at the "Soo," in order 
that the vast commerce of the Northwest might pursue its 
natural pathway to the sea. 

The splendid and beautiful cities of the lakes, the giant 
industries of commerce and manufacturing and transportation 
which center there, the happy and prosperous homes which 
fill the golden Northwest — have made its face to shine and 
its bosom to become the garden and granary of the world — 
should all yield their thankfulness to the farsighted and 
devoted statesmanship which in the beginning fostered and 
developed their richest blessings. 

For ten years he served on the important Committee of 
Pacific Railroads, and his practical sense, his broad wisdom 
and faith in the future of his people and his country, his 
great abilities as a lawyer and man of affairs, were never 
exerted to better advantage than in working out the method 
of settlement between the Government and the Pacific Rail- 
roads, so that the people should lose nothing by their gener- 
osity and the growth of that vast portion of our country 
should not be checked by inaction and folly. Much of the 
credit for this splendid result belongs to the effective efforts 
of Senator Davis. 

There was one great work of statesmanship of which he was 
always justly proud, and which should carry his name in grateful 



Address of Mr. Stevens, of Minnesota. 131 

remembrance to the numberless thousands of its beneficiaries. 
As chairman of the Committee on Pensions of the Senate- he 
exerted his great skill and persistency in framing and enacting 
the dependent-pension act of 1S90. Under its generous provi- 
sions, up to the 1st dayof January, [91 >t . more than Sooo.ooo.ooo 
have been disbursed among the needy and infirm veteran- of the 
civil war and their widows as a token of the gratitude of a 
patriotic and appreciative people. Senator DAVIS was a veteran 
himself. He knew them and their conditions and their neces- 
sities, and to the last his love and labors were ever with his old 
comrades in whatever could be done for their assistance. 

One of the acts which make his career conspicuous was his 
telegram to some of his Duluth constituents during the disturb- 
ances of 1894, calling their attention to the fundamental prin- 
ciples of our Government and the necessity for the observance 
of law by all true citizens. They then knew, and have ever 
since known, that Senator Davis was their devoted friend. 
He was always independent, sincere, and patriotic, and never 
truckled to selfish interests or paid allegiance to private power. 

His love of country and its institutions, his deep knowledge 
of history and its philosophy, had convinced him that the lore- 
fathers in the centuries gone had suffered oppression chiefly 
because there had been no law, or observance of law, to which 
they could confidently appeal upon equal terms with the rich and 
the powerful; that the greatest safeguard to the toiler of to da) 
is the existence of constitutions and laws made by the chosen 
representatives of every man, guaranteeing rights which are 
enforced by tribunals established by the people themselves; and 
whoever overturns those laws, constitutions, and tribunals 
threatens the fundamental rights and liberties of every man 
who loves them, who prospers and depends upon them. 

It required courage and patriotism to speak amid the tumult 



132 Life and Character of Cushman K. Davis. 

of the hour, but Senator Da vis always possessed these qualities 
in abundance. 

The people of Minnesota can never repay fully the debt which 
they owe him for his services in the protection of their public- 
school fund. The original legislation granting tp this great 
fund two sections in every township was passed upon the admis- 
sion of the State to the Union; but during the last fifteen years 
or more the most constant attention has been required to prevent 
adverse legislation and construction. In Congress, in the o >urts, 
and in the great Departments Senator Davis has labored unre- 
mittingly, and throughout the years of the great future the 
youth of our State will enjoy the splendid provisions secured to 
them by the wise founders of our Commonwealth and protected 
by the devotion of our beloved Senator. 

In this career of statesmanship Senator Davis kept pace with 
his people and his section of the country. As their influence 
and wealth and power extended, he, too, sought the broader 
domain of statecraft, and left his impress, potent and practical, 
upon the greatest national policies. 

When President Harrison sought to acquire the Hawaiian 
Islands, in 1S93, Senator Davis was one of his devoted cham- 
pions. 

And later, during the Administration of President McKinley, 
when it became necessary for the broad purposes of public 
defense and welfare to secure their possession, it was Senator 
Davis, with his wide knowledge of precedents and history, 
who chiefly devised the plan which resulted in the successful 
consummation. He was offered by President McKinley a place 
upon the Hawaiian commission, but was obliged to decline, 
since he was needed more as a member of the peace commis- 
sion to negotiate and finally settle the treaty which ended the 
war with Spain. 



Address of Mr. Stevens, of Minnesota. 133 

No one in public life has recognized more clearly the tre- 
mendous effect of the Monroe doctrine and its application 
upon the manifold relations of our country with the other 
nations of the earth, and his powerful exposition of it at crit- 
ical times has directed the attention of the world to the stead- 
fast and commanding position of the United States and our 
guardianship of the broadest American interests. 

He early foresaw the necessity of protecting our rights in 
the construction of the Nicaragua Canal, and his wisdom was 
recognized by the overwhelming voice of our people when the 
patriot who had conceived the amendments had departed to 
his fathers. 

His knowledge of the commercial relations between this and 
foreign nations was unsurpassed. Years ago he discerned the 
importance of extending our foreign trade to insure the con- 
stant and profitable employment of our people, and then fore- 
told that upon the Pacific Ocean and in the Orient would be 
the battle ground for the industrial supremacy of the world. 

A forcible illustration of the wide influence and high regard 
of the opinions of Senator Davis upon international and legal 
questions was presented during the present Congress. When 
the bill for the encouragement of an American merchant 
marine was pending before the appropriate committees of the 
Senate and House, it seemed to the Senators and Members 
from the Western States that the interests of their section of 
the country and of the producing classes had not been suffi- 
ciently guarded, and that of necessity some provisions must be 
made to encourage the development of our foreign markets and 
improve conditions for the producers. So a plan was devised 
which required that every ship receiving assistance from the 
Government should carry on its voyage outward bound a cargo 
containing a due proportion of the products of our country. 



134 Life and Character of Cushman K. Davis. 

This proposition was strenuously opposed by the proponents 
of the measure, and by their counsel, some of the ablest and 
most influential lawyers in the country, upon the ground that 
such a provision would violate the obligation of the various 
treaties between the United States and the several commercial 
nations. 

Any benefits which might accrue through this measure to 
the producing classes of the country seemed to depend upon 
a proper solution of this problem. The question of legality 
was submitted to Senator Davis for his opinion, and, after a 
few days of examination and reflection, he forwarded a letter in 
which he stated that the proposition for a due proportion of 
export cargo was not a violation of any treat}' provision and 
that such a plan would be valid and feasible. 

The reception of that opinion changed the entire course of 
legislation. The eminent counsel ceased their opposition, and 
from that moment all parties have coincided in the validity 
and wisdom of such a requirement. This only illustrates the 
weight and influence which the opinion of Senator Davis car- 
ried in the highest councils of Congress and of the nation. 

But his chief lame will probably arise from his patriotic and 
effective services during the long course of the dealings with 
Cuba; with the legislation and the various diplomatic relations 
during the war with Spain; with the settlement of that conflict 
and of the momentous problems which have arisen from its 
various phases, and with the mighty consequences of our con- 
cert with the other nations in the Orient. 

The thirty years of the most severe and yet delightful study 
for him had borne the fruit of the distinguished and useful 
service for his country. For a generation he had pursued his 
chosen themes of international law — its history, its philosophy, 
its literature and development — as a recreation. Few possessed 



Address of Mr. Stevens, of Minnesota. 135 

this rare- and ample equipment, and to but few are allotted the 
splendid opportunities of assisting in the birth and direction of 
policies and events which will have a large influence through- 
out all time upon the history of our country and probablj of 
the entire human race. His patriotic labors, his illustrious 
career in these great transactions, need not be recounted here, 
but they fill a generous space in our history at a most important 
era. His countrymen all realize that his work was undertaken 
and carried through in the ideal spirit of patriotic devotion and 
in the broadest view of a lover of his fellow-man. 

He was ever a strong and decided Republican, and never fal- 
tered in his allegiance to the party of his faith. Vet, in his 
thought and action upon momentous themes of national and 
international importance, he endeavored to bear himself as a 
patriot rather than a partisan; to examine them from the highest 
plane for the greatest public welfare, and to lift their considera- 
tion above the depths of petty and passionate discussion into 
the loftier and serener atmosphere of true statesmanship. 

It is a misfortune for his popular fame that these great 
labors were principally displayed in the committee room, in the 
executive sessions of the Senate, in consultation with the 
leaders of the Administration, or in the deliberations of the 
Peace Commission. Yet their power has been manifest, and 
if the future shall unfold the richest blessings, as we devoutly 
hope and trust, upon all who dwell beneath the folds of our flag, 
none will have accomplished more for this beneficence than 
the modest, learned, and patriotic Senator from Minnesota. 

The people of his State had unbounded admiration for his 
talents and capabilities, the utmost respect for his integrity and 
devotion to public interests, and the greatest love for him as 
a true and steadfast friend. No man had a more loyal and 
enthusiastic following. Unselfish and untiring, for a quarter 



136 Life a?id Character of Cushman K. Davis. 

of a century they sustained him, because they knew what 
manner of man he was. 

No one better appreciated such devotion, and he ever sought 
to express his gratitude whenever occasion offered. Some- 
times criticisms have arisen because, in his recommendations 
for appointments, Senator Davis would not recognize the more 
recent political developments, but instead would stand by his 
old and true friends. Such criticisms never affected him or 
caused him to deviate from his determination. His friendship 
was one of the prizes of a lifetime, one of those features which 
help to make life complete and strengthen it for its arduous 
duties. 

It was always a delightful hour for his friends when the 
strain and labors of the day were past. The relaxation with 
cigar and companion would come, and together they would 
wander with his keen, yet kindly, wit, with his ample store of 
the world's wisdom and his quaint learning, through the broad 
fields of poesy and history, philosophy and politics, and then 
reach the loving retreat of old time-tried friends. Here he 
always delighted to linger, and no longer could there be amaze- 
ment that his friends were grappled to him with hooks of steel. 

There are scenes of sorrow in our lives which impress so 
greatly that' the finger of time only deepens and can never 
erase them. Such to me was the last interview with my 
friend. 

It was late upon the Sabbath afternoon after the last election 
when he signified his desire to see me, as I called to inquire 
concerning his welfare. I was ushered into his apartment as 
the rays of the setting sun were illuminating his stricken 
features and suffering form. 

With clasped hands he spoke of his gratitude for the elec- 
tion results and for the success of the party and candidates to 



Address of Mr. Stevens, of Minnesota. 137 

which he had contributed so much in his personal and official 
labors. Then his mind dwelt with his friends, upon their love 
and appreciation, their solicitude for him, and he wished for a 
little more time to carry through what he felt was his life's 
work and demonstrate that their trust and fidelity and love 
had not been misplaced. But tired nature ordained otherwise. 
At the height of his fame, in the zenith of his influence and 
his power, in the plenitude of blessings which made life dear, 
there departed this sagacious, just, and profound statesman 
and jurist; the learned and eloquent orator; t-he wise, patriotic, 
and public-spirited citizen; the kind and devoted sou and hus- 
band; the generous, faithful, and lovable friend. 



138 Life and Character of Cushman A". Davis. 



ADDRESS OF MR. WM. ALDEN SMITH, OF MICHIGAN. 

Mr. vSpeaker: This day has been set apart in honor of the 
memory of Cushman Kellogg Davis, statesman, orator, 
publicist, and man of letters. 

When he died the greatest mind, the most apt and ripest 
intellect that has been applied to foreign affairs during my 
career here, ceased to exist. 

His grasp of important problems was herculean. He dealt 
with large topics and moved among spheres with a grace and 
ease unusual and unaffected. 

With a manner so diffident and modest, a temperament so 
calm and well poised, a personality so engaging and yet so 
retired, his career here is an inspiration to the younger men 
with whom he served and a delightful memory to those of 
maturer years. 

Mr. Speaker, how man)' of his associates knew he was a 
veteran of the civil war? And yet the record of his army life 
reveals a loyal soldier in one of the greatest crises of our 
time. 

He was as modest in statesmanship as he was in war, and 
were we dependent upon his recital for knowledge of his work, 
the world would miss much that is real and significant in his 
life. 

He was a master of international law, that subtle rule of 
nations, and none of his colleagues ever questioned his conclu- 
sions when formally expressed. 

He was a diplomat in all that the word implies, bringing 
to the solution of great questions of state a discernment and 
tact rare and unequaled. 



Address of Mr. Wm. Alden Smith, of Michigan. 

Senator Davis contributed to solve main- (if the must deli 
cate and important questions growing out of the Spanish 
American war, with an eye single to the country's honor, 
and with matchless constancy. 

With all clue respect for those associated with him in the 
work of the Paris Peace Commission, his masterful mind often 
led the participants in the final scene of that international 
drama out of vexed and trying ordeals to easy and apt solution. 

He was modest in his- habit, free from show or ostentation 
as it is possible to be. His form, seemingly intended for the 
sole purpose of supporting a large head and a large heart, 
was useless for parade. In a gathering of men of affairs he 
would be the last chosen for personified greatness. But let 
him once speak, and all the attractions of the others would 
fade suddenly away before his masterful and predominant 
mind. 

Senator Davis was unconventional in manner, easily ap- 
proached, kind, tolerant, and helpful to young men, all of 
whom loved him and listened with profit and delight to his 
quiet review of the great events through which we are passing. 

As a man of letters Mr. Davis had few if any peers among 
the statesmen of his time. His literary instinct was must 
rare, and the pure and delicate shading of his sentences is to 
literature what the sweet and dainty perfume of the rose is 
to the flower. 

He had a master mind, and in any field in which it was 
applied it was comprehensive and exhaustive. 

Mild in manner, and in voice subdued. Simple in his desires. 
Unaffected as a child, tender and affectionate, bringing imag- 
ination and sentiment into the driest explorations, with a power 
to clothe thought in most inviting phrase. With him, law 
was poetry, and fact fiction, and each busy day a benediction, 



140 Life and Character of Cushman K. Davis. 

night following with solace and reflection among his books 
and companions dear. 

Nature was most kind when it gave Cushman K. Davis 
to the world, and now that he has been taken away in the 
very zenith of his fame, at a time of greatest usefulness, the 
world is poorer, and the Government he defended on the field 
and in the forum has lost one of its mightiest pillars. 

His words of wisdom will long rule us from the golden 
urn wherein his ashes are encased, and his public acts will 
illuminate these council chambers of the nation for years to 
come, while his splendid companionship and winning person- 
ality will ever linger, a loving inspiration. 



Address of Mr. Morris, of Minnesota. 141 



Address of Mr. Morris, of Minnesota. 

Mr. Speaker: Respecl and veneration of the living for the 
dead have been characteristic of enlightened and civilized men 
from the remotest antiquity, even from a time long prior to 
that when Abraham purchased for 400 shekels of silver, as a 
burial place for Sarah, the cave of the field of Machpelah. 

And this sentiment is creditable to the living. Its effect has 
been elevating and ennobling to the whole human race. It 
has given rise to those customs and observances which have 
been practiced by men of all ages and nations, from the simple 
ceremonial and plain gravestone which affection prepares for 
the humble and lowly to the funeral oration, the gorgeous 
pageant, and the splendid mausoleum which the honor and 
reverence of a people demand for those who have been distin- 
guished above their fellows. Without it we should not have 
had some of the noblest and most priceless treasures of the past. 

The lofty and mysterious pyramids, the tomb of Csecilia 
Metella "with two thousand years of ivy grown," the massive 
and impressive castle of St. Angelo, the wondrously beautiful 
and delicately magnificent Taj Mahal, the Hotel des Invalides, 
the Albert Memorial, and innumerable others of those miracles 
of human genius and art given to us by the piety and reverence 
of the grand old masters all tell the same story. And it finds 
expression here in these parks and halls and corridors, where 
the heroic forms of those who have wrought for the honor and 
glory of our country in the days that are gone look down from 
their pedestals and inspire us by the memory of their deeds to 
patriotic devotion. 

It k this sentiment which has established the custom under 



142 Life and Character of ' Cushman K. Davis. 

which we meet to-day to give fitting expression to our sorrow 
and commemorate in some slight degree the virtues of the great 
public servant who has recently departed. 

I am all too conscious that I shall not be able to add any- 
thing to what has already been so beautifully and appropriately 
said here and in the other Chamber as to the character and 
public services of Senator Davis, and yet I feel that I should 
not be true to myself or faithful to the people whom I repre- 
sent if I did not say something, however inadequate it may be, 
to express their and my own admiration and love for him and 
for his memory. 

The barest outline of his career in those paths which he 
followed, the profession of the law and the public service, 
would be sufficient to show that Senator Davis was not only a 
prominent man, but a great man, bearing always in mind and 
heart, and doing his part to exalt and preserve and keep 
unstained, the integrity and glory of his country, whether as an 
obscure though gallant and faithful subaltern in the military 
service or as the great chairman of the Foreign Relations 
Committee of the Senate. 

Graduating from the University of Michigan at an unusually 
early age and coming to the bar as soon as he had reached his 
majority, he had scarcely begun to practice his chosen pro- 
fession before he felt himself impelled, notwithstanding his 
delicate constitution, to answer the country's call to arms. 
Entering the service, he remained for two years, until the 
complete breaking down of his health compelled his resignation. 
Moving to St. Paul, he sprang at almost one bound to the 
leadership of a bar distinguished for its learning and ability. 

It was almost impossible that one of his commanding talents 
should long remain in private life, and so we find him entering 
the public service and filling the positions of a State legislator, 



Address of Mr. Morris, of Minnesota. 143 

United States district attorney, governor of the State, regent 
of the State University, United States Senator — three times 
chosen— and commissioner to negotiate with Spain the treaty 
of peace, of which he became the leading champion and defender 
until its final ratification by the Senate, and which is destined 
perhaps to mark the most daring and important step in the 
onward march and progress of this great Republic. 

It is not my purpose to attempt to trace the causes of this 
brilliant career — his honorable and sturdy ancestry, his early 
environment and training, his studious and laborious habits, 
and all those things which are the sources and the accom- 
paniment of greatness — or to measure its impress upon the 
country. I prefer rather to speak of Senator Davis as I 
saw him and knew him in the full maturity of his splendid 
powers. Living in a distant part of the State, I enjoyed 
only a slight personal acquaintance with him until I came 
t< 1 Washington as a Representative in Congress. When I 
went to Minnesota he was about to enter for the first time 
upon the stage of national politics, being about to be chosen 
to that great office for which more than ten years before 
he had striven and failed. 

The legislature which first elected him to the Senate had 
already been chosen. It was generally conceded that he 
ought to be and would be elected, and in due course of 
procedure he was elected. His name was, of course, on 
even - lip, almost universally in terms of praise. He was 
described as a great lawyer, a great orator, and as one who, 
if given the opportunity, would become a great statesman. 
But these were vague terms, conveying very indefinite mean- 
ings, largely dependent upon the taste and view point of 
the person using them. 

Xot lone: after that he came to Duluth t;> conduct the 



144 Life and Character of Cuskman K. Davis. 

trial of a very important case, and I then saw and heard him 
for the first time. I do not now remember the style of the 
case or the questions involved, but I am sure I shall never 
forget the man whose appearance in it attracted the atten- 
tion and admiration of all present. A great main- members 
of the bar, especially those who, like myself, had recently 
come to the State, attended in the court room to hear the 
trial. I remember his very manner of entering the court 
room and taking his place in the bar — quiet, modest, un- 
assuming, and yet with a dignity denoting confidence and 
rep>>>t; without vanity, noticing without exception his acquaint- 
ances, and greeting his friends with a quiet cordiality which 
at once explained the loyalty of their devotion to him, and 
the warm and evidently sincere expressions of esteem which 
they always used in speaking of him. 

I shall not attempt to describe his conduct of the case. - After 
it was over I walked down from the court-house with a lawyer 
friend, himself a man of learning and wide and varied culture. 
We talked of the trial and the man. We both agreed that in 
his deportment to the court, his examination of the witnesses, 
hi- statement of the law, and his manner of addressing the jury 
he represented the highest type of the profession — one who 
had explored and mastered the science and history of the law, 
and who while showing a perfect familiarity with the cases 
bearing upon the particular point involved, yet used those 
cases only to illustrate, enforce, and illumine the underlying 
philosophy and the fundamental principle. 

We agreed that as an advocate he marshaled his facts and 
presented his arguments with a frankness and directness, a 
logic and power, and a wealth of illustration which were well- 
nigh irresistible. Neither of us knew his habits of study. I 
do not think either of us knew that he had written any book. 



Address of Mr, Morris, of ' Minnesi 145 

Neither of us had ever heard him deliver a lecture or had ever 

read one that he had delivered. And yet both of US noted the 
rare felicity of his language and his simple, direct, and exqui 
site style, without the slightest trace of pedantry or of an effort 
to display his learning. 

The next time I heard Senator Davis speak was to an audi- 
ence filling the stage and wings and every box and seat in the 
opera house at Duluth during the political campaign of 
Here again was the same wealth and power of argument, tin 
same evidence of laborious study and careful thought, the 
same accurate knowledge of history and current events. While 
his voice was not strong, it had a peculiar quality whicl 
abled him to be heard in the remotest corner of the theater, 
and there was in it a certain sweetness of modulation and tone 
which seemed to charm and subdue his audience as there fell 
from his lips those perfectly polished jewels of thought and 
expression. 

He resorted to none of the tricks of the public speaker. He 
indulged in no flippant stories. He never seemed to lack for 
historical precedent and illustration. They seemed to come 
unbidden from the capacious chambers of his memory. He 
challenged no adversary's sincerity. If he resorted to ridicule- 
he did so with a lightness of fancy and delicacy of touch that 
left no sting. He indulged in no bitterness. He was always 
self-contained and dignified, and even in his most glittering 
periods, while he spoke with the fervor of the orator, yet at the 
same time he exhibited the composure of the master. 

He seemed satisfied to state his own and his party's position 
and the reasons therefor with all the strength he could com- 
mand, and to leave it to the judgment of those whose voices 
were to decide. And when he concluded his hearers seemed to 
arouse themselves as it were from a beautiful dream, and go 
S. Hoi'. 230 10 



146 Life and Character of Cuskman K. Davis. 

away, if not entirely convinced, at least deeply stirred and 
quietly thoughtful. I do not remember to have heard any 
other speaker who gave me the same complete pleasure, and I 
well remember, as we rose to go, how the friend who sat next 
to me drew a long breath and said: "Simply splendid! Splen- 
did! We ought to be proud of him." 

I heard him again on the hallowed field of Gettysburg at the 
unveiling of the monument to the valor and devotion of the 
First Minnesota Volunteers. Surely none of us who stood there 
on that bright July day, with that peaceful and, as he expressed 
it, "delicious landscape," around us, can ever forget the scene 
or the beautiful and touching words he spoke to the battle- 
scarred veterans about him. Throughout all there was the 
glow of an ever-present and undying patriotism, but with it 
that spirit of generosity, forbearance, tolerance, and forgive- 
ness which always mark the man of brave heart and noble 
mind. I shall never forget one sentence. I must give it here: 

The same earthquake force which opened that abyss closed it again, 
and we stand now, here and everywhere, upon solid ground— holy ground 
here — because it is a tomb where the hosts of valor and patriotism have 
"set up their everlasting rest." It is also a field of resurrection whence 
has arisen the genius of a restored Union. 

Mr. Speaker, one unconsciously and irresistibly recalled the 
words spoken in the same place by that greatest of all, and we 
felt and knew that so long as such as he that spoke to us and 
those then about us shall live ' ' government of the people, for 
the people, by the people shall not perish from the earth." 

I heard him again, Mr. Speaker, at a banquet upon the eve 
of his departure for Paris to perform the final and crowning 
service of his public life. In the time since he had come to the 
head of the Committee on Foreign Relations events had crowded 
upon each other with a rapidity and variety, producing an in- 
ternational situation hitherto unknown, and thus opening to 



Address of Mr. Moiris, of Minnesota. 147 

him the opportunity for which he had been unconsciously in 
training throughout the whole of his studious life. 

He had shown his wide and accurate knowledge of the diplo- 
matic history of our country and his complete and thorough 
master}' of international law, and for a condition for which there 
was no precedent had created a precedent the soundness and 
wisdom and justice of which were universally recognized. He 
spoke with the same masterful force aud strength and in the 
same brilliant style, somewhat tempered and subdued, I thought, 
by a keen and overshadowing sense of the responsibility which 
rested upon him. 

His words evinced a full realization of the fact that the 
rapid and unparalleled successes we had gained and the absolute 
prostration of our adversary had brought with them great duties 
and obligations. He saw only too well that those duties and 
obligations might lead inevitably to a course aud policy un- 
known and untried to us before, and which would give rise to 
wide and bitter differences amongst ourselves. There was that, 
however, about the bringing of the institutions of this young 
Republic of ours into active, potential, aud quickening contact 
with the oldest empire of earth which seemed to appeal to his 
imagination and stimulate his daring mind. 

He was too wise not to know the difficulties and perils that 
lay along the pathway, too farseeing not to know that prob- 
lems would arise requiring for their solution years of anxious 
thought and patient endeavor. Yet, nothing daunted by these 
perils and problems, he spoke with an intense Americanism, 
with a sublime faith in the conscience and capacity of the 
nation, and with a love of liberty which would establish here 
aud everywhere not its temporary and fleeting shadow, but 
its permanent and enduring substance. Aud there was not 
a man who heard him who did not believe that in the high 



148 Life and Character of Cushman A'. Dams. 

duty to which he had been called whatever he might do 
would be for the honor and glory of our country and the 
welfare of others, and that the nation would sustain him. 

This, Mr. Speaker, was the man as I saw and heard him 
in his public life. As a lawyer, learned and profound. As a 
statesman, faithful to his ideals, studious in his habit, patient 
and conservative in council, self-reliant and bold in the hour 
of action. As an orator, logical, persuasive, eloquent, brilliant. 
One could not hear him often without knowing that he had 
walked through all the fields of classical literature, ancient 
and modern, that he had spent many hours in intimate com- 
panionship with Shakespeare, and that whether Christian or 
atheist, skeptic or believer, he had read with delight over and 
over again the Book of Job, the Psalms of David, the Sermon 
on the Mount, and the Gospel according' to St. John. 

As the crystal waters of the State he loved, as its name 
implies, catch and reflect every hue and tint of the skies above 
them, so his delicate and refined nature seemed to catch all 
that was beautiful in his wide horizon of history, literature, 
and poetry and reflect it back in the glowing imagery of his 
language. 

Mr. Speaker. I shall always consider it one of the greatest 
privileges that I have ever enjoyed that when I came to Wash- 
ington I was admitted to a close personal acquaintance and 
friendship with him. Here I came to know his charming and 
delightful personal qualities and to understand how he pos- 
sessed the love and admiration of the whole State and the 
absolute devotion of his intimate friends, and why he was so 
universally esteemed in the great legislative body to which he 
belonged. No man was ever more loyal to his friends than 
he. Those that he had "and their adoption tried, he grappled 
them to his soul with hooks of steel." He was always frank 



Address of Mr. Morris, of Minnesota. 140 

and open, gentle, kind, just, generous. He was always toler- 
ant of the opinions of others, while no man was more tenacious 
of his own after they had been deliberately formed. 

I never heard him speak evil of any man. It was always 
commendation or silence. He was one of the most modest men 
I ever knew. Indeed, he hardly seemed to appreciate the high 
place he held in the regard of the country. He told me ouce 
that he never made a speech that his knees did not tremble at 
the beginning, ami those who have entertained him on his 
campaigning tours of the State have told me that he was so 
nervous at the meal just before the meeting that he could eat 
scarcely anything. He was always genial and agreeable, but 
never quite so much so as in his own library, before an open 
fire, with a good cigar. He told me once that in all his long 
years at the bar he had never had a law book in that library, 
and had never suffered business to be discussed there. That 
was a sacred precinct reserved for his friends. 

I remember his saying to me, giving an affectionate glance 
at his books, "These are my friends — some of them the friends 
of my youth — and I have never found them wanting." Let 
it not be understood that he was one who made a display of his 
learning or of his reading. I never knew one who had less of 
that. He seemed to take an especial interest in young men. 
His law partners were young men. To those just entering 
upon their duties here he was particularly cordial and helpful, 
and was always reach" to advise, encourage, and assist. Of this 
I have had personal experience, aud I had come to have for 
him a real affection. Is it any wonder that such a man should 
have the love of those who knew him best? 

As I stood at the grave in which he rests I could not help 
thinking how strange, how past finding out to our finite minds, 
are the inexorable decrees of Providence. There were yet 



150 Life and Character of Cuskman K. Davis. 

higher things which the people of his State had proudly hoped 
for him. And he himself with brave and worthy ambition had 
hoped that he might be spared to aid in the solution of those 
perplexing questions growing out of the great transactions in 
which he had borne so conspicuous a part. It was indeed sad 
and pathetic that he should be taken just at this time. 

I remember some years ago, when Gambetta died, to have 
seen a picture representing the great French commoner as a 
sculptor, in working garb, with mallet and chisel falling from 
his nerveless grasp, lying dead at the feet of an uncompleted 
statue of the Republic of France. If I were called upon to 
depict the last sad scene in the drama of this man's life, I 
would represent him moving in answer to the summons of the 
grim specter, grandly and fearlessly, to "the silent halls of 
Death," yet casting one last, lingering, anxious, yet confident 
look at the starry flag of his country, shining, as he expressed 
it, "amidst the constellations of the Antipodes." 

Mr. Speaker, the State of Minnesota will miss him. That 
great body of which he was so conspicuous an ornament will 
miss him. The country will miss him. And in the years to 
come the men who shall represent that Commonwealth can 
set for themselves no higher mark than that already made by 
Cushman Kellogg Davis. 



Address of Mr. Gamble, of South Dakota. 151 



Address of Mr. Gamble, of South Dakota. 

Mr. Speaker: I feel I could not do .less than at least add 
my presence on this occasion as a partial expression of my grief 
at the great loss to the nation in the deatli of the distinguished 
citizen of Minnesota. The notification to me was so recent, 
and my time has been so completely occupied since my return 
to the city, I have had no opportunity whatever to put in form 
the words I would be glad to express. Under the circum- 
stances, Mr. Speaker, what I have to say will be brief. My 
admiration for Senator Davis was most high, and the people of 
my State had great appreciation of his splendid abilities and 
eminent statesmanship. 

Aside from my personal regard for the deceased, especial 
reasons impel me to join with my colleagues in this memorial 
service. I recall a similar occasion some years since in the 
Senate. My brother, John R., was elected to the Fifty-second 
Congress. He died in the autumn of 1891, before taking his 
seat in this body. Among the eulogies pronounced on that 
occasion in his memory in the Senate none was more beautiful 
than that of Senator Davis. He spoke generous words con- 
cerning a noble and loving brother then. Can I now do less 
than drop a tear by the new-made grave of this noble and lumi- 
nous spirit, and speak a kind word in his memory? 

In addition to this, I can truthfully say the people of South 
Dakota greatly admired and loved Cushiuax K. Davis. They 
felt under special obligations to him. Years ago the people of 
the then Territory long struggled for recognition and to be 
admitted as a State into the Federal Union. We felt we were 
denied rights justly due us and guaranteed under the Federal 
Constitution. Every effort was made by our people with the 



IS- Life and Character of Cushman A*. Davis. 

greatest earnestness and persistency, but Congress resisted 
every appeal and stood with deaf ear to our entreaties. We 
felt we complied with all the conditions to entitle us to state- 
hood. Upon partisan grounds for long years we were denied 
either consideration or recognition. 

At that time Senator Davis rendered us conspicuous service. 
He appreciated the aspirations of our people, and with his 
strong sense of justice came to our assistance. From the 
vantage ground of his position in the Senate he was most 
potential in promoting the cause of admission. He made one 
of the strongest arguments in our behalf when the matter was 
pending before that bod) . 

We appreciateil and loved him then. We admired him 
throughout his public life for his scholarship, his ability, his 
high purposes, and his patriotism. Great, noble, splendid 
soul, though of Minnesota, he belonged to the Northwest, and 
inspired it with his leadership, and he unstintingly had its 
admiration. Although the Northwest might claim him; his 
great talents or his fame could not be circumscribed. He 
belonged to the whole country, and his noble and generous 
manhood made him an ideal citizen of the Republic. 

His life is a splendid study. Many beautiful and ennobling 
lessons have been drawn from it in our hearing here to-day. 
It is, and will be, an inspiration to the American youth. It 
gives substantial evidence of what may be accomplished in the 
highest sense under the rule of a republic. His aims were high, 
his purposes far-reaching, and with patience and industry he was 
willing to labor and to study, knowing in time the rich treasures 
he was gathering would serve him well in the years to come. 

He did not mean that his life should be narrow. His studies 
were broad and his experiences comprehensive. His earlier 
and later training well fitted him for the extensive range and 



Address of Mr. Gamble, of South Dakota. [53 

application of his high qualities and abilities. From the nature 
of his training he was fully equipped for every duty he was 
called upon to perforin. His life was a natural and orderly 
development through all its stages: A resolute and tireless 
youth; a patient and splendid student; a patriotic and noble 
young man, who offered his life as a sacrifice, if need be, to the 
integrity of his country; a wise and helpful citizen; a keen, 
well-equipped, and learned lawyer; a scholar, rich in the 
knowledge and experience of the world; a great executive 
of his adopted State; a legislator of conspicuous ability; a 
diplomat whose fame was not circumscribed by the limits <>t 
the Republic: 

His services to his country were great. The people had 
unusual faith in his judgment. He was a patriot always, and 
had unbounded confidence in the destiny of the Republic. At 
no time in his public career did his wise counsel and splendid 
statesmanship seem so essential to his country as at the time 
of his decease. 

He was easily a leader among the great men of the nation in 
helping to solve the momentous questions that came as a 
result of the recent war. The country looked to him as to 
none other in the Senate as being the real leader in their 
solution. By his researches, his learning, and high order of 
talents he was best equipped for that purpose. His states- 
manship had been most potential in shaping our policy so far 
toward our new possessions. Had his life been spared he 
would have been in position to have rendered most conspicuous 
service in solving our definite and permanent relations with 
these new and distant peoples. 

He had 110 misgivings for the future. He believed we had 
been led by a higher instinct and that the richness of the 
Orient was to be ours, not only for our civilization and our 



i.S4 Life and Character of Cushman K. Davis. 

munificent influences in government, but for the wealth of our 
commerce, the glory of our people, and to assert, where we 
rightfully should, our highest and plainest duty to the world 
and to ourselves. 

Cushman K. Davis will always be a conspicuous figure in 
a great epoch in our country's history. He led us, as I believe 
no other statesman led us, into the great pathway of our future 
destiny. And in his exalted position, in the very zenith of 
his power and of his usefulness and service to his country he 
loved so well, his light went out. 

Death takes us unawares, 

Ami stays our hurrying feet. 
The great design unfinished lies, 

Our lives are incomplete. 

His life was well rounded, replete with unusual service, 
complete, however much we had hoped for his future. In the 
midst of his activity, his wealth of learning and his power, 
how much more pathetic and noble his death. Resolute, 
strong, wonderfully equipped, he was at the very forefront in 
statesmanship in his own laud, and held high place in the 
estimation of P^urope. He died in the service of his country 
and in the midst of his activities. 

Mr. Speaker, how grateful we should be for such a life, 
such a noble inspiration to the youth of this great Republic, 
inspiring to them, helpful to us. He was a leader who had 
sublime faith in the nation's destiny. He pointed to the 
pathway which leads to the nobler and higher civilization in 
the world's work of the future, in which he believed this 
Republic was to take a conspicuous part. 

We speak of him as a student, a scholar, a soldier, a patriot, 
a statesman, and a diplomat. Well may we honor the life, the 
character, and the memory of Cushman K. Davis. 



Address of Mr. Eddy, of Minnesota. 155 



Address of Mr. Eddy, of Minnesota. 

Mr. Speaker: A mighty man among the lawmakers of 
the nation has fallen. Words can not add to the luster of his 
fame; his achievements are a part of history, and mere speech 
can not add thereto or detract therefrom. 

I shall not attempt to offer comfort to the bereaved hearts or 
bind up the broken spirits of those near and dear to him by the 
ties of kinship. God and time alone can perform this sacred 
office. 

I shall only briefly portray the impressions that the brilliant 
Senator from Minnesota left upon my mind during a close per- 
sonal and political acquaintance of more than twenty years. 

Mr. Speaker, in the last half of the nineteenth century the 
United States has crowded greater and more momentous events 
into the history of humanity than all the other nations of the 
world in all the ages of the past. During this period our 
Republic has produced three noted men different from all 
other men and marvelously different from each other — Lincoln, 
Reed, and Davis. Lincoln, the greatest executive of this or 
any other country; Reed, the master parliamentarian of the 
ages, and Davis, unrivaled in the diversity of his information, 
unapproachable in his knowledge of international law, and 
unequaled in the realm of diplomacy. 

Lincoln fell by the hand of an assassin immediately following 
his great work of liberation. Reed after impressing his per- 
sonality and individuality upon the parliamentary bodies of the 
world, supplanting hoary precedent with modern common 
sense, piercing Fiction's armor of time, coated with the scales 
of centuries of prejudice, with the lance of progress, voluntarily 



156 Life and Character of Cushman A". Davis. 

retired from an office "that has no equal and but one superior" 
to the quiet pursuit of his chosen profession. 

Davis, who, after a long series of expanding successes, 
became the master mind in American diplomacy, dominating, 
almost unconsciously, it is true, but none the less dominating, 
the mighty minds that composed the peace commission and 
virtually created the treaty of Paris, which in the years that lie 
before will come to be regarded as one of the world's greatest 
triumphs in diplomacy, met death with that same calm, indomi- 
table courage with which he had overcome every obstacle that 
confronted him in life. 

It seemed to the people of the nation that these great gladia- 
tors were called from the public arena at the very time that 
their services were most needed: but may it not be that a 
higher than human wisdom directed it thus, that lesser achieve- 
ments coining after might not dim the brilliancy of the greater? 

I never regarded Senator Davis as a great leader of men in 
the popular acceptation of the term, but rather as a director of 
leaders— one who with marvelous preciseness mapped out the 
paths in which other and more dashing men led public thought 
and action. He was not the captain of the ship of state, but 
rather the pilot who stood at the wheel, to whom the captain 
looked for guidance and upon whose knowledge of the great 
ocean of current events he absolutely depended to keep the ves- 
sel in the true course of progress, that it might not be stranded 
on the shoals of misgovernment or wrecked on the rocks of 
disaster, and to whom he never looked in vain, for a complete 
chart of the past had he at his finger euds, and so keen was his 
knowledge of the motives that impel men and nations to action, 
and so accurate his conclusions as to what events would follow 
certain causes, that he read the future with almost prophetic 
power. 



Address of Mr. Eddy, of Minnesota. 157 

I well remember that six months before war was declared with 
Spain I was with him one evening in his library. Ik- was sit- 
ting in an easy-chair in that characteristic attitude that those 

wh<> knew him can so well remember, and gazing dreamily into 
the wreaths of smoke that arose from his favorite cigar. He 
cast a horoscope of the future and foretold great events that 
would soon occur, conditions that would arise, problems 
would confront the nation, and results that would be accom 
plished with a correctness that I do not believe was ever equaled 
since the days when God spread the future like an open hook 
before his chosen prophets and bade them read occurrences yet 
to come. 

Although ordinary in appearance and weak of voice, he was 
rator of first rank and power. He never resorted to the 
artifices common to most public speakers to gain approval. He 
seldom indulged in witticism, anecdote, sarcasm, or appealed to 
public prejudice to attract and hold his audiences, but he com- 
manded the attention of the multitude by the beauty of his 
tion and the irresistible force of his logic, and when he had 
finished a subject there was little left to add by those who con- 
curred in his views, and nothing at all to say for those who 
opposed his propositions. 

He was original in conception, accurate in conclusion, and 
daring in execution. He eschewed beaten pathways of thought 
and proceeded in a way peculiarly his own, reasoning from the 
beginning to the end, and from the end backward to the : 
ning, or from the middle both ways, as best suited his con- 
venience, for he was a veritable Napoleon in the domain of 
thought, and " Davising" a question has come to mean in our 
State solving it differently from other people, and always arriv- 
ing at a correct solution. 

He jumped at conclusions, but his was never the leap of 



i sS Life and Character of Cushman K. Davis. 

ignorant enthusiasm into the darkness, trusting to luck for a 
safe lauding place, but the spring of the trained athlete who, 
knowing his own powers., has measured the distance with an 
eye of unerring accuracy, knows exactly how and where he is 
goiug to alight, and by which he cleared the chasms of difficulty 
and sped onward toward his goal, while others were compelled 
to laboriously bridge the same chasms with the timbers of 
experience and plod after him up the heights. 

He was a tireless searcher after knowledge, and he loved to 
delve into the musty volumes of antiquity and garner the best 
thought and highest wisdom of the ancients in the tongues in 
which they were spoken, which he placed in the storehouse of 
his memory for future use. A master was he of current litera- 
ture, in the law authority, in the arts and sciences an encyclo- 
pedia, and his ever restless mind, like the active wife in spring- 
time house cleaning, dug into cobwebby nooks, dust-covered 
crannies, and dark comers, carelessly passed by others, in his 
never-ending search for information. 

He sought the secret of the insect, the flower, the leaf, and 
the blade of grass with the same avidity and delight that 
he solved great legal problems or mastered mighty national 
or international questions. His waking hours were hours of 
endless investigation, and I sometimes used to think that 
when he slept the physical man only reposed and the mental 
kept up its ceaseless search for cause and reason, and every 
fact that he had ever culled from any source and ever)- con- 
clusion he had ever reasoned out at an}- period of his life was 
always in easy reach of one of the thousand arms of his mind, 
and he came nearer knowing everything than any man I ever 
met. 

But it was not as a gallant soldier, a learned counselor, a 
wise and sagacious statesman, or a skillful diplomat that those 



Address of Mr. Eddy, of Minnesota. 159 

who knew him best love best to think of him, but as a friend, 
for as a soldier, a lawyer, a statesman, and a diplomat he 
belonged to the nation: but he possessed that rare geniality of 
nature, kindliness of spirit, and magnetism of manner that 
caused each one admitted within the charmed circle of his per- 
sonal friendship to feel that he existed only for his benefit and 
lived for him alone; and when the hearse bore him through 
the long lines of his fellow-citizens to beautiful Calvary Ceme- 
tery, where abide the dead, not only did the rich and powerful 
bow their heads in sorrow, but tears filled the eyes of those 
who sawed wood and washed clothes for their daily bread, and 
who had known him and loved him from his youth up. Truly 
can it be said, "The poor wept at his death." And the tear of 
poverty is the truest tribute to man's worth. The sorrow of 
the humble is always genuine; the grief of the mighty is often 
simulated. 

Mr. Speaker, I would not for a moment have you think I 
considered him a perfect man, for he was not. He had his 
faults and failings, his weaknesses and his prejudices, that are 
as multitudinous in the statesman as in the man who labors on 
the street. Distinction and great ability do not create immu- 
nity from shortcomings. Statesmanship and Frailty are often 
brothers. 

He loved little children, and they understood and loved him 
in return. They were drawn to him by that subtle fascination 
that only the gentle gentleman can exercise and the genuinely 
kindly hearted man can maintain. Man may be imposed upon 
by false friendship, but the little ones possess a God-given 
intuition that enables them to pierce the mask of hypocris3 r and 
read the soul, and it is always safe to trust a man in any posi- 
tion that children love; and if the spirits of the departed know 
the things of earth, as I believe they do, the bunches of 



160 Life mid Character of Cushman K. Davis. 

common posies contributed by his little friends afforded him 
the sweetest pleasure of all the floral tributes that were offered 
in his remembrance. 

Mr. Speaker, I shall not attempt to recount the achieve- 
ments, list the accomplishments, or extol the virtues of this 
many-sided man. His record as a soldier is written with the 
pen of action on the hearts of those who touched elbows with 
him in those " times that tried men's souls," and with loving 
tenderness they will transmit it to their descendants; and the 
spoken record of affection ever has and ever will influence the 
world more than the written pages of history. 

His sword of service, which he never wore for ornament 
and gladly laid aside when service ended, that rested upon his 
casket as it reposed in state in Minnesota's capitol, told to the 
people with the eloquence of silence what the dead soldier in 
his youth was willing to do, dare, and sacrifice for the country 
he loved ; and of his wider — I will not say greater — services 
in the paths of civil life let the records in the archives of the 
State and nation proclaim. And when the sons and daughters 
of the North Star State, which claims him as its most distin- 
guished citizen, shall erect for him a stately monument, more 
as an evidence of their love than as a tribute to his greatness, 
let there be inscribed on its base the simple word "Davis," 
and the world will know the rest. 

And then fat 5 o'clock and 35 minutes p. m.) the House, as 
a further mark of respect and in accordance with its previous 
r, adjourned. 

u 



